<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Dousing the Flames by AllieRat</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24236314">Dousing the Flames</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllieRat/pseuds/AllieRat'>AllieRat</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Canon, More violent than the show but not. like. graphic, Multi, Will add character tags as they show up in the story, changing canon, the end goal is zuko x oc but there will be minor romances for oc</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 19:29:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>31,332</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24236314</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllieRat/pseuds/AllieRat</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Southern Water Tribe realizes that they can't survive with their dwindling resources unless they accept help from outsides, so a mutually beneficial trade system is set up between the Water Tribe and some Earth Kingdom traders. A Water Tribe warrior and an Earth Kingdom citizen fall in love, and by the end of the year, the Tribesmen return home to the South Pole... with a new addition. Katara was no longer the only waterbender there. ((This retelling starts before the ATLA plot and changes how the story progresses! Zuko x OC))</p><p>((ON HOLD))</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Zuko (Avatar)/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>100</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue: Water Child</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>((A/N: Hello and welcome to my ATLA story! This was bound to happen with ATLA coming out on Netflix now... I watched the show when I was a little girl, and I'm re-watching it now as I write this story! So, a few pointers before reading my fic;</p><p>1) Each chapter will be called an episode, but they don't always sync up to the episodes of the show itself. Like one chapter won't go through the events of a whole episode of ATLA; just thought it was a cool thing to title the chaps (-: </p><p>2) The story and plot will change due to my character's involvement. Things begin changing around as soon as Episode One (aka chapter two). And finally,</p><p>3) ATLA was a Nickelodeon show geared towards kids, so it avoided things like bloodshed, death, and generally not-meant-for-kids things. My story won't be avoiding them, as I am gonna try to write it more realistic to a story that's taking place during a war. So if fighting, bloodshed, death, and adult themes are not your cup of tea, go ahead and turn back now.</p><p>But if you're still here and interested in reading, then thank you for giving my story a chance! Reviews and comments encourage me to write faster, even a simple "nice" will do. Thank you and enjoy!))</p><hr/><p>During the Great War with the Fire Nation against the rest of the world, the Water Tribes at each end of the world seemed to dwindle further and further with each passing year. Eventually, they stopped contacting each other at all, and barely made contact with the world outside of their poles. The Northern Water Tribe did good in this time, expanding its’ icy borders and jealously guarding what they claimed as theirs. Their families grew, their food supply never seemed to dwindle in the harsh winters, and they lived well in this changing world. </p><p>The Southern Water Tribe, however, was quite the opposite. With their food supplies disappearing year by year due to the fish migrating and the animals leaving the cold wilderness to live elsewhere, many of their people went hungry most nights. Their population was small, a tight-knit family that cared deeply for one another. They were shut off from the rest of the world just as much as their Sister Tribe was, but they desperately needed the trade to survive.</p><p>In the year of 82 AG, the Southern Water Tribe finally broke their tradition of not needing the help of outsiders, sending out a small envoy of warriors and fishermen to establish a trade line. They found a caravan of traveling tradesmen from the Earth Kingdom. Several men and women agreed to set up a mutually beneficial trading system between the two of them; cured meats and vitamin-rich vegetables for Tiger-Seal jerky and white hides from arctic animals. They spent a year together, establishing routes and working out the details of prices and what-not before this idea could lift off from the ground. Seven people had left the Southern Water Tribe in order to make this expedition.</p><p>A year later, in the year of 83 AG, eight came back.</p><p>An infant girl, named Mizuko by her Earth Kingdom citizen mother, was brought back home with her Water Tribe father. There may have been some insults thrown around at first, a few elders unhappy with the idea of having children outside of the Tribe, but they soon accepted little Mizuko into their ranks, loving and doting on her as they would to their own. She grew up loved in this little home, watching her father leave every winter to go on the trade routes and bring home foods and other materials by the month’s end. She felt proud that her father was so important to the tribe, being taught time and time again about how the trade is important to keep them afloat in this icy world. </p><p>Her father felt that same pride for his daughter when they discovered she had the unique gift of waterbending. It started young, at the age of five, and little Mizuko had the desire to learn everything she could about waterbending - the origin of the art, how it came to be known by humankind, how it was mastered… Everything about her newfound ability intrigued her. She met another young waterbender girl named Katara, who was a full year younger than Mizuko was, and they bonded quickly over the interesting details of their powers.</p><p>Four years after her abilities were discovered, when she was nine years old and still struggling to control her waterbending, her father left one wintry morning to go on the trade route once again. Never once had she said goodbye to him. She always knew he would come back to her by month’s end.</p><p>Mizuko didn’t get to say goodbye to her father.</p><p>The supply route had been compromised, found out by Fire Nation soldiers. The Earth Kingdom citizens had sold them out for their own safety, and every Southern Water Tribe person present was killed in the ensuing fight. Then, the Fire Nation soldiers followed the trail back to the tribe itself. Mizuko did not get the time to mourn her father before black and red filled her eyes as the men who radiated heat pillaged her home and demanded that every waterbender present show themselves. They were all rounded up and counted, and when they demanded the number wasn’t right and there should have been two more waterbenders accounted for, two women stood and went willingly toward the soldiers.</p><p>One woman was her friend, Katara’s, mother. The other woman, Mizuko did not even know. She knew Katara’s mother was lying in order to save her daughter. The other, a stranger to Mizuko that she had never bothered learning the name of, willingly went into the fire to save her. Mizuko cried for her when the fleet had left. She cried for her father, too, but she found that, for years after the event had occurred, she would never stop thinking of that woman.</p><p>Ever since then, Mizuko demanded to never feel so weak and unhelpful again. Never again would she be the little girl who hid while someone else took the fall for her. Her father had taught her a few things as a strong warrior of the clan, and she learned a few tips from the waterbenders of the tribe before they had all been taken away. She remembered these people as she began training, spending nearly every day fighting and sparring with the other kids - although mainly with the only other child here around her age, a boy named Sokka.</p><p>She quickly became known as the resident trouble maker of the village; always getting into something she shouldn’t be messing with, going out to explore places that she shouldn’t be in. However, along with this troubling activity, the others in the village also took note of how fearless she was - she always went just a little bit farther, worked just a little bit harder, stayed out for a little bit longer than the others. Despite her penchant for annoying the tribe Elders, they also could not help but admire the growing warrior they saw in her.</p><p>When she was fourteen, Sokka thirteen, and Katara twelve, the rest of the men left the village willingly. They left to go fight a war in the Earth Kingdom - which Mizuko thought stupid of them. The Earth Kingdom citizens had sold them out for their own skin, why did these loyal and brave warriors have to shed their blood for those who would not do the same? Either way, she said her goodbyes to each and every one of them, including to Katara and Sokka’s father. He knelt down to her level when she came up to him, and looked into her blue eyes deeply.</p><p>“Mizuko, I know you’re not happy we’re leaving,” he says in a somber tone. “But it’s important to always remember that, even if the world around you doesn’t seem honorable and just, <em> you </em> must always remain honorable and just. Do you understand? Do not let the shortcomings of others define you.” </p><p>She hesitated only a moment before nodding her head. He smiled at her and rustled her red-brown hair a moment before standing up and leaving with the rest of the men. Mizuko watched them go, and Katara came up to her side, tears locked away behind her blue eyes as she clutched her mother’s betrothal necklace in one hand. Mizuko glanced down at her, then away. She grasped Katara’s hand in hers, and that seemed to be the final straw that let the younger girl’s tears stream down her face. On the other side, Sokka grabbed Mizuko’s other hand. She was only older than them by a total of two years, but it seemed they still looked at her like an older sister.</p><p>Her grip tightens the slightest amount on their hands. She doesn’t look down at Sokka when she hears him sniffling, knowing him well enough that she knew he’d be embarrassed to be seen crying. </p><p><em> Whatever it takes, </em> she tells herself. <em> I’ll protect them, whatever it takes. </em></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Episode One: Before the Change</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>((A/N: So, I know last chapter I said I’d get to the plot by this chapter, but I wanted to write out a bit more of Mizuko’s past, her relationship with her tribe, and her personality before getting into the thick of it. Plot related events start happening NEXT chapter! Pinky promise (-:</p><p>THANK YOU to everyone who liked, favorited, followed, or left kudos on the Prologue!! It seriously made me all giddy inside to see y’all liking it so quickly, even if there’s only a few of you at the moment. I hope I make you proud! Enjoy the chapter!))</p><hr/><p>Katara grunts in effort, her arms shaking as she tries, desperately, to lift the cold water out of the wash-basin with her waterbending. Mizuko watches from a little distance away, sitting on a pile of snow that had been compacted enough to act as a solid seat. The water raises a few shaky inches out of the wooden bucket, Katara shutting her blue eyes tightly as if she’s in physical pain in attempting to lift the water. Finally, after a tense moment of silence, the water falls back into the basin with a <em> splash! </em>and Katara seems to deflate, lowering her arms dejectedly and panting out a bit. </p><p>Mizuko stifles a snicker, turning her head away when Katara sends a scathing glare her way. </p><p>“Oh yeah?” Katara begins, hands going to her hips as her rather infamous temper begins flaring up. “I’d like to see <em> you </em>do better, Mizu!” </p><p>Mizuko’s chuckle dies down slowly, taking her time before she finally claps her hands to her knees and stands up with a loud sigh. She walks towards Katara slowly with an obvious and exaggerated swagger to her steps, clearly rather confident in herself. </p><p>“Oh Katara,” she starts in a light tone. “You’re only twelve winters, don’t fret so much about not getting it right on the first try!”</p><p>Katara’s brow twitched over her eye, her anger gathering quickly. Mizuko knew why that sentence had made her so mad - first of all, Mizuko was only two years older than Katara, standing at a measly fourteen years of age, so it’s rather annoying for her to talk down to her like she’s an old and wisened Master Waterbender. Secondly, this is, for certain, <em> not </em>Katara’s first try. She’s been trying to do something as simple as lifting water from a bucket for almost two months now. Mizuko looked at the younger girl in thought.</p><p>As soon as the older men and warriors had left the tribe to go fight for the Earth Kingdom a couple of months ago, Katara had come up to her with her fists clenched and tears in her eyes. She’d told her that she saw how strong Mizuko was, how the village elders called her a warrior too despite being a young girl, and how she seemed to grasp the art of Waterbending so easily. With a determination that Mizuko had never before seen in Katara’s eyes, she demanded that Mizuko help her with her Waterbending in any way she could - she never wanted to feel weak or unhelpful again.</p><p>Just like Mizuko had felt when her father died, when a woman had willingly died for her safety, and when the <em> real </em>fighters of the tribe left. </p><p>So, of course she’d agreed to help - Mizuko was by no means a Master in the art of Waterbending, in fact she could only just barely do better than Katara could at the moment. Despite this, the others in the village called her “a natural” with the skill.</p><p>She can’t deny it puffed up her ego just a bit every time she heard those words being tossed around.</p><p>“Stand back and watch, young pupil, how a <em> real </em> Waterbender does it,” Mizuko made a ‘shoo, shoo’ gesture to Katara, who rolled her eyes and stomped a few feet away in annoyance. Despite her clearly agitated mood at the moment, Mizuko could see that she was still closely watching her movements - wondering in her head, <em> what am I doing wrong? Why can’t I get it right?  </em></p><p>Mizuko leans back on one foot, then evenly divides her weight between both legs, crouching down lower to the ground and taking a deep breath of icy air into her lungs. Her arms raise up to chest-level, then she goes through the motions quickly and smoothly - half the water in the basin lifts steadily, swirling into a sphere of steady liquid. She looked over at Katara, saw her gaping up at the sight, and she smirked. Quickly and with practiced steps, she spun in a circle, letting the water dance around her like a whip with a mind of its own before she finally let it slowly fall back into the bucket. As she let it go, her arms lowered and she let out a deep breath as her body relaxed. </p><p>“So?” Mizuko asks with a smile and a cock of her hips. “Are you ready to try again?”</p><p>Katara looked torn for a moment - torn on whether to snap at Mizuko and tell her to stop being so smug about it, or to just nod her head and accept the help. She sighs and lets her shoulders drop, then moves forward.</p><p>“Fine,” she says with a small pout. “But if you make fun of me again, I’m dumping the bucket on you.”</p><p>Mizuko’s brows raise in amusement at her pseudo little sister.</p><p>“How are you gonna do that if you can’t lift even a few droplets out of the bucket, Katara? Are you planning on mastering Waterbending in the next few seconds?”</p><p>Katara let out a groan of annoyance, then looked down at the bucket. A spark filled her eyes, and Mizuko found herself taking a step back in caution. Quickly, Katara bent down to grab the bucket - it was heavy and icy water was sloshing out over the sides onto Katara’s bare hands, but the younger girl had a wide, wicked grin on her face.</p><p>“Let me show you, Mizu!” </p><hr/><p>Mizuko crouched down low in a snowbank, a bone-tipped spear in one hand as she moved slowly and carefully around the outskirts of a circle of rocks and ice. In the center of the circle were a couple of tiger seals - their meat would feed the village for at least another week, maybe even two if they made jerky from the blubber. Her people weren’t <em> starving, </em>per se, but she had definitely noticed some women giving up their shares of food to feed their children and the elders, and she was determined to fix the problem. At least for a little while. </p><p>She changes her position, quietly lifting herself up into a steady crouch that would be best for a sudden leap. Her hands gripped her spear tightly, nervously moving an inch downwards, then upwards, as if she didn’t already have the correct hold on it engraved in her muscle memory.</p><p>One of the tiger seals lets out a giant yawn, exposing the large teeth within its jaws. Mizuko’s heart beat quickly in her chest, and she leaned forward in her crouch.</p><p><em> One, two… </em>she counted mentally.</p><p>Finally, on the mental <em> three! </em> she leaps forward, hand held up above her head and behind her with her spear grasped tightly within it, ready to throw as soon as she has her target locked in her sight. The two animals reacted almost instantly at the sudden sound of snow crunching underneath leather boots, letting out shouts of surprise to alarm each other. </p><p>Mizuko lets her spear soar free, hoping with everything she’s got that it hits her target.</p><p>
  <em> Thunk!  </em>
</p><p>Just an inch shy as the creatures begin moving.</p><p>“<em>No, </em> damn it!” She curses, rushing forward to collect her spear and aim again. One animal runs, but the other, she sees, goes on the offensive. It charges her, maw gaping open and teeth aimed for her head. She’d learned from previous hunters that the jaw of a tiger seal is so strong that, if given the opportunity, can and will crush through bone.</p><p>Mizuko drops into a slide at the last second, stopping just a few inches in front of the creature to avoid the blow to her head it had intended. When it reared back to strike again, she pedalled back on her hands, looking around for whatever she could use to defend herself. She was no longer hunting for food for her people - now, she would die if she couldn’t get away or kill the beast first. </p><p>The tiger seal lunges down at her with its open mouth again, slamming its head into the ground as Mizuko deftly kicks backwards to flip up onto her feet. She knows her Waterbending isn’t good enough, or fast enough, to use in a ‘real fight’ - that is to say, against another person. However, the tiger seal seemed smart enough to block her from her spear, so she pushes both hands down onto the snowy ground beneath her and concentrates as hard as she can - she makes a mental image of what she’s trying to make, feels the icy structure in her hands, and moves upwards into a standing position as the snow hardens into a column of ice beside her. </p><p>She grins, both surprised and proud that it worked, and she grabs the ice, pulling it back and watching with a satisfied smile as the end of the column breaks off into a sharp enough piece to use as a weapon. </p><p>However, as she turns back to face the creature, she sees it running off. She wants to appreciate the intelligence of the animal - taking the time to run away instead of trying to fight an enemy with a new weapon - but she’s filled with only anger and frustration. Her Waterbending <em> had </em>taken too long, and her food was getting away. She throws the sharp ice at it, but it misses. She rushes forward and grabs her spear, throwing that at the creature too.</p><p>It lands with a solid, meaty <em> thunk </em> into the tail of the tiger seal. It pauses for a moment, howling a loud, terrifying wail of pain into the air, before it simply… keeps running. </p><p>Mizuko feels herself freezing up with worry and anger - anger at herself for failing what seemed like such an easy hunt, worry that it’ll get away and she’ll go back to her hungry people, empty handed. </p><p>She begins moving forward to chase after it, but stops after a few steps. It was fast, and it was already too far away. She saw it leaping into an exposed hole in the ice, swimming away. Mizuko crouches down where she stood, shutting her blue eyes tightly and putting her gloved hands over her face.</p><p>She spends a few minutes in that position, simply running every negative thought through her mind - <em> you let it get away, you weren’t fast enough, weren’t talented enough. If you were a better Waterbender, it would have been easy to trap and kill them. Your people will go hungry because of your failure </em> - before she finally stands up with a sigh and a resigned expression. It doesn’t take her long to return back to her Tribe, rubbing her arms for warmth with a downcast look on her face.</p><p>“Mizu!” Katara greets her at the entrance to the village, an excited smile on her face. She’s rushing forward into Mizuko’s arms within seconds, and Mizuko smiles down at her. “I’m so glad you’re back! You were gone for so long, I got worried…” She trails off, burying her face into the warm, soft material of the older girl’s thick winter coat.</p><p>Mizuko puts a hand on Katara’s head, patting it absently as she watches Kanna and a few of the other Tribe members approach. </p><p>“How did the hunt go, Mizuko?” Kanna asked her, her aged eyes looking around her as if she’d hidden the food somewhere just out of sight. She frowned.</p><p>“I found some tiger seals nearby, a couple of them isolated from the rest of their pack. But, uh,” she hesitated. She runs her hand down Katara’s hair one final time before gently prying the girl from her front to talk to the elder woman respectfully. “They got away. I couldn’t catch up to them when they ran. I’m sorry.” She bows her head in both apology and shame.</p><p>Kanna shook her head, a smile on her face. </p><p>“It’s alright, Mizuko. I know you always try your best. You should rest, have some hot broth to warm yourself.”</p><p>“That’s okay, Gran. I’m just gonna get some rest, and maybe go out again in an hour or so. There could be more…” Kanna and the other women shook their heads, knowing it was most likely a fruitless attempt. Before anyone else could say something about her wanting to go back out, Sokka pops out from the little door of his home-made watch tower.</p><p>“Where’s your spear, Mizu?”</p><p>Mizuko groaned.</p><hr/><p><em> “I don’t know, Gran-Gran,” </em> Katara’s voice drifted over from where she sat by a fire with her grandmother, Kanna. <em> “What if Mizu doesn’t want to keep training me?” </em></p><p>Mizuko paused where she was standing, currently hidden behind a nearby tent in the shadows of the night. She had been planning out a prank on Sokka, to get back at him for making fun of her for losing her spear to a tiger seal, and hadn’t been purposely eavesdropping in on the people sitting around the fire near the center of the village. In fact, she’d been ignoring them completely up until she heard her own name being spoken.</p><p>She crouched down, wondering how long they’d been talking about her without her paying attention to them. Obviously, it was wrong to eavesdrop on other people’s conversations, but…</p><p>Well, she had no excuse. She was just too curious. </p><p>She set down the bucket of mud she’d been holding, the main item in her revenge prank she was planning.</p><p><em> “Of course she wants to keep practicing with you, Katara. You have to remember she’s not a master Waterbender, even if she has the arrogance of one,” </em>Kanna speaks back, the last few words dripping with sarcasm and amusement. Katara laughed along with her, then quieted down soon after.</p><p>
  <em> “It’s just…  you’ve seen how she acts when I try Waterbending. She laughs, she makes fun of me. And she’s right! I’ve been trying for two and a half months to just lift water out of a bucket, and I can’t get it right! What am I doing wrong? She’s so much better at it than I am.”  </em>
</p><p>Mizuko frowns, her brows lowering to form a worried, and confused, expression. She was only ever joking around - did Katara really feel hurt by the way she acted?</p><p><em> “Katara, dear…” </em> Kanna takes a moment to collect her thoughts, and Mizuko bites down on one of her covered fingers in anticipation. <em> “Some people are… naturally talented with their Bending techniques, the same way some people are quicker learners than others. There’s nothing wrong with you or how long it takes to learn new Waterbending moves.” </em></p><p>
  <em> “But… Mizu, she-” </em>
</p><p>
  <em> “Have you told Mizuko how you feel? How her taunting makes you upset?” </em>
</p><p><em> No, </em>Mizuko thinks. She’d never known. Something twists in her gut, an ugly feeling she’s not all that used to. Guilty, maybe? </p><p><em> “Well, no…” </em>Katara hesitates. Kanna starts talking again, but Mizuko stands up to leave. She leaves the bucket there, no longer interested in the prank with this new information on her mind. She heads for her tent discreetly, not letting the others by the fire notice her. Once inside, she sits down on the only bedroll in the warm tent. She slowly takes off her boots, then her heavy coat. Mizuko sits in silence for a moment, wondering over this feeling in her heart. She’d thought it was all fun and games, simply taunting between family members. Instead, all this time, her words had been eating away at Katara’s confidence in herself.</p><p>As Mizuko laid down under the covers of her bedroll, she frowned and shut her eyes. Sleep came hours later.</p><hr/><p>The next morning, Mizuko is out bright and early, setting up the usual Waterbending practice area.</p><p>The “training area” consisted of a single seat carved into a pile of snow, a few buckets of mostly liquid water with a few bits of ice floating in them, and a couple of big sticks that Mizuko had once had the bright idea of using as weapons for training. They’d never actually gotten around to using it, always still stuck on working on the Waterbending part of training.</p><p>Katara joined her shortly, a yawn escaping past her lips as she straps her mittens onto her hands. </p><p>“Mornin’,” she greeted through her yawn. </p><p>“Goodmorning,” Mizuko greeted back with a small smile. She couldn’t quite meet the younger girl’s eyes at the moment, still feeling rather guilty and ashamed about the information she’d learned last night. </p><p>“Are you going to start first?” Katara asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. </p><p>“Er, no, actually,” Mizuko rubbed the back of her neck, looking away. “I figured you should go first today. I wanna see what kind of progress you’ve made.”</p><p>Katara grumbles something under her breath at the idea, but nonetheless she gets into position quickly and easily. She moves her legs apart to be lower to the ground, bending at the knees. Her arms come up to chest-level, and she straightens her back a bit. Before she can start, however, Mizuko pipes up.</p><p>“Make sure to take a deep breath before trying.”</p><p>Katara turns and levels a stare at the older girl, and Mizuko shrugs,</p><p>“Letting the air flow through your whole body is best for trying to bend. It…” Mizuko waves a hand in a circle motion, trying to think of the right words to use. She was by no means a Master, or knew anything about how Waterbending actually works when it comes to the physical body, but she wanted to try to explain how <em> she </em>did it. Perhaps that would help Katara a bit. “It opens your body, spiritually, to really feel your element. Understand it better. Kind of like meditating, but quicker and shorter.”</p><p>Katara looked like she didn’t quite believe her, but she initiated the pose from before, this time adding a deep, slow breath into her motions. She raises her hands slowly, concentrating hard on trying to lift the water. Slowly, ever so slowly, the water begins shakily lifting up into the air. This part is as far as Katara had ever gotten - she seemed to have a particular issue with trying to form it into a sphere.</p><p>“Come on, come on,” Katara muttered under her breath. Mizuko watched in the background.</p><p>A <em> pop! </em>soon rings out around the two of them, and Katara stands there in utter disbelief for a moment. She’s soaked to the bone in ice water, as the small sphere she had been trying to form had burst right over her head. She clenches her hands into fists, and looks down at the ground with frustrated tears in her eyes. </p><p>Mizuko frowns, and walks forward to stand beside her a few feet away. She pours a bit of water into the bucket before Katara silently, refilling it back to its original volume. Katara looks away, and huffs.</p><p>“Well? Got anything to say now, Mizu?”</p><p>Mizuko looks at Katara, then looks away. She could think of a hundred jokes, taunts, and insults - things she’s said before already. She shuts her eyes, then wrings her hands together nervously.</p><p>“Yeah, actually,” she starts. She turns to look at Katara, a small smile on her face. “It’s okay if you don’t get it this time. If we keep practicing, I’m sure you’ll get it! You’re real smart, I know you can learn this, Katara.”</p><p>Katara looks up in surprise, then back down at her feet. She sniffles a bit, then laughs. She looks back up at Mizuko again, this time a warm smile spreading on her face. </p><p>“I’m gonna be better than even <em> you </em> one day, Mizu!”</p><p>Mizuko smirked. “Yeah? I look forward to the challenge, then!”</p><p>They both laugh.</p><hr/><p>Almost two years later, Mizuko is a much more experienced hunter and, though there aren’t many animals near the Tribe to hunt for food, almost every time she <em> did </em>encounter them it tended to be a successful hunt. Once or twice, she took Sokka out on a hunt with her. He was growing older each day, and already at her height - she knew he’d grow taller than her in no time. Every time she went out to hunt, he begged her to come along with her. The Tribe trusted her to hunt food, knew she was capable enough to handle her own. Sokka was still just barely young enough - and immature enough - that they didn’t want him to do anything even remotely dangerous. Katara tended to agree with them, but Mizuko knew that it was mostly worry for her brother that made her feel that way.</p><p>Mizuko runs a gloved hand over her red-brown hair, long enough to reach her shoulders and, surprisingly enough, styled into a warrior’s wolf tail. It was a cut meant for warriors, and she was surely a warrior, but there were hardly ever any women in the Tribe who cut their hair to match. There were only a few murmurs of disagreement among her people before they decided she had definitely earned it. The sides of her head were colder than she was used to thanks to the shaved hair, but she was proud of her haircut.</p><p>She sighed, remembering Sokka. He’s got a long way to being a strong, patient, and calm hunter - but he’s getting there with every hunt she takes him out on. </p><p>This time, however, she had decided to go alone. She has always been careful with where she took Sokka when they went out together, always keeping a protective eye on him and making sure he didn’t wander too far, but this time she figured it was simply too far away from the Tribe for him to accompany her. </p><p>He had thrown a fit, arguing that he was only a year younger than her and he was a good hunter too. Kanna had helpfully interjected and told him that his immaturity was evidenced by the tantrum he was throwing at not getting what he wanted. That had shut him up, and he stormed off to his tent. </p><p>Mizuko felt bad about leaving him like that, but she also agreed with Kanna just a bit. Sokka could be impatient and rush in without planning, and that was going to get him killed if she didn’t teach that out of him. Could have gotten <em> her </em>killed two years ago, getting too close to those tiger seals like that…</p><p>Mizuko shook her head to clear away the thoughts. Now was not the time to think on it, or to think about how she left Sokka back in the Tribe. She was on her way back from a hunt - she needed a clear head so she wouldn’t run into anything that might want to kill her.</p><p>She was currently sneaking through tiger seal territory. They were not her prey and she had no intention of fighting them - tiger seals were strictly not to be hunted while they’re collected in packs. They make for fearsome predators if they’re not too scared to stay and fight, and having the advantage of numbers gives them the courage for it. She stayed on the high ground, carefully glancing at the animals resting on the rocks below her. She has a bone-tipped spear in hand, a replacement that Sokka and Katara had both helped her carve after she lost her last one. She looked at the childish letters engraved on the bone, all of their names and a couple of smiley faces to accompany them (or a frown with teeth in Sokka’s case), and she smiled. </p><p>As she passed over the creatures, she tightened her hold on the rope securing a few dead animals to her person. She’d caught and killed a few arctic squirrels. They wouldn’t be enough to last for more than a day, she knew, but it was better than nothing. Besides, they have a bit of food stored up always anyway. Winter was quickly approaching, and they were trying their best to stock up food before the harsh storms came. Mizuko knew she wouldn’t be able to hunt anything when it happened - nor would the others in the Tribe even let her try. They were already finicky about her leaving today when the weather looked like it would start snowing soon. </p><p>They were right - snow had begun falling a few minutes ago on her trek back home. Thankfully, her hunt was over and she could wait out whatever storm was coming in the safety of her tent in the Village. Carefully lifting herself a bit higher on an ice-tipped rocky slope, she glanced down at the tiger seals below her. She nearly stumbled right over when she noticed one in particular, with a gouge of scars amassed on its tail… where a spear would have hit.</p><p>She smiled, and fought down a laugh that threatened to bubble out from her throat. The damn animal had survived, then, and was happily laying amongst its own kind again.</p><p>“Cheeky bastard,” she muttered, shaking her head and continuing on her way home. There was no reason to hunt it now. Not only was it surrounded by a cabal of tiger seals that she knew she couldn’t fight off on her own, but, Mizuko mused, perhaps it deserved to live another day with how it escaped her all those years ago.</p><p>Returning home, she notices Kanna standing at the entrance to the village, nervously wringing her hands together. The moment she spots Mizuko walking towards her, she quickly moves forward to meet her half-way, speaking before the young girl could even say hello.</p><p>“Oh, Mizuko! It’s good you’re back early. Sokka, he,” she hesitated. “That foolish boy went out on his own! He said he’d spotted a big animal, something huge and covered in white fur that would feed us for a month into Winter. I tried to tell him to stop, we all did, but he grew angry, said we were holding him back! I just went to check on him, and him and his weapons were gone! Please, won’t you go get him, bring that stupid boy back home?”</p><p>Kanna had grabbed onto Mizuko's coat while speaking, worried clearly in her voice and face. Mizuko couldn’t quite understand what to feel first - anger at Sokka going out on his own, worry for his life, or frustration that she had <em> just </em>returned and was about to leave again. </p><p>She removed the string of arctic squirrels from her back, handing them to Kanna. </p><p>“Alright, I’ll go get him. Where did he go, do you know?”</p><p>She accepted the animals and pointed the direction out to Mizuko, who nodded her head and ran off without another word.</p><p>The fresh snow had covered up his oldest tracks and Mizuko had to simply trust Gran’s instructions on where to go. After a few minutes of walking, the snow began getting deeper and Sokka’s tracks became more visible to her eyes. It looked like he had stumbled a few times, struggling with the deep snow despite his boots being meant to help him with such things.</p><p>The snow began falling harder now, and Mizuko picked up her speed as she lifted her hood to cover her head from the cold. She needed to find him before the storm really picked up, or else they’d <em> both </em>be caught out with nowhere to wait it out. </p><p>A few more minutes of hurried trudging through the snow, she finally caught up to him. He was huddled behind a pile of snow, shivering in the cold but otherwise holding his boomerang at the ready to aim and throw. He glanced over the pile of snow to something that Mizuko couldn’t see, and as soon as she got close enough, grabbed him by the ear. </p><p>“Ow, ow, ow! Let me go!” He swung wildly at whoever his attacker may be, only stopped when Mizuko caught his arm and pulled his boomerang out of his hand. </p><p>“What do you think you’re doing, you idiot? Do you <em> see </em>the snow coming down? It’s going to storm!” She hissed out at him. Now that she was sure he was safe and unharmed, she let her anger come out freely. It had been a really stupid thing to go out on his own during a snow storm, and he needed to know it.</p><p>“But Mizu, look, there’s--” Sokka began trying to defend himself, trying to pull out of her grasp but not attempting to take his boomerang back. She noticed he also had his battle club strapped to his back. </p><p>“It doesn’t matter, Sokka! It doesn’t matter if you’d found a <em>hundred</em> big things to feed us, you could have gotten lost out here and <em> died! </em>” She panted a bit, and Sokka looked at her with wide blue eyes. Finally, he shrunk back into the snow and looked down, dejected. Mizuko was the closest thing to a real warrior that the tribe had at the moment, and for her to be so angry at him for trying to gain her approval, it stung him. Mizuko noticed his lack of argument and sighed, taking a calming breath of icy air. She knelt down to his level and placed a hand on his shoulder.</p><p>“Sokka, look,” she started in a quieter, more subdued tone. Sokka looked up into her eyes, noticing she didn’t look so angry anymore. Mostly, she just looked… worried. “I know you were trying to do something good, okay? I know you had good intentions. That’s not why I’m upset with you.”</p><p>The wind howled around them, and Mizuko knew they should be getting back soon. But she needed to tell him this, needed to get it through his thick skull while he was still paying attention to what she had to say. Her grip on his shoulder tightened.</p><p>“What’s the one thing I always tell you to do, no matter how small or how large the hunt? No matter how far or how close, no matter how easy it might seem?”</p><p>Sokka sighed, muttering a response. “To <em>plan</em>… Always have a plan.”</p><p>Mizuko nodded. “You ran out with no plan, Sokka. You saw something you wanted, and you immediately went to chase after it. You really could have died out here, Sokka,” she spoke with a gentle tone. She <em> needed </em>him to understand - she couldn’t even think about what she might have done if he had never returned, if she had never been able to find him.</p><p>Sokka hesitated, his naturally stubborn nature telling him to argue back, to defy her orders and shrug her off. Instead, he nodded his head solemnly. </p><p>“I’m sorry, Mizu. I’ll do better, I promise! Please, don’t ground me from hunting with you again,” he looked up at her with pleading eyes. She smiled, surprised that <em> that </em>was the part he was worried about. She laughed a bit.</p><p>“Come on, let’s get back home before we get stuck out here.” She stands up and offers her hand to Sokka, which he gladly accepted with a small smile. She holds up his boomerang to her eyes as they start heading towards the Village. “I won’t stop you from coming with me on hunts for this, but…”</p><p>She looked down at him, smirking.</p><p>“You’re helping Katara with laundry for a month.”</p><p>She laughed at his immediate argument, knocking him on the back of the head with her knuckles lightly. It was definitely the least he deserved.</p><p>Although he ended up only helping for a few days before Katara decided he was too annoying to work with and kicked him out.</p><hr/><p>((A/N: If y'all are interested in seeing some art I made of what Mizuko looks like, here you go; https://imgur.com/QK2vTAv She's wearing her travel outfit in the picture, not the heavy furs she would be wearing while living in the Southern Water Tribe. Thanks for reading!))</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Episode Two: The Coming Tides</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>((A/N: Thank you for all of your comments and reviews! It really makes me happy to see so many of y'all taking an interest in my story so quickly. I hope you start to see the changes happening!</p><p>Enjoy the chapter!))</p><hr/><p>Half a year goes by with relative peace and quiet for the Southern Water Tribe. Mizuko celebrated her sixteenth birthday with a party, everyone dancing around the bonfire in the center of the village and having a roast that held enough meat for the whole Tribe to enjoy. In past years, she was told, the celebration of a girl turning sixteen was one of the largest parties they held. The singing and dancing would go deep into the night and end as the sun came up in the morning, and there’d be a feast big enough that the leftovers would feed everyone for weeks afterward. This time, the roast may not have been as big as it could have been - for which the other women in the tribe apologized profusely for - but Mizuko hadn’t thought anything about it. Saving food for the children and elders made more than enough sense to her.</p><p>Besides, not only had it been more than enough, but she had also felt a pride in watching her Tribe enjoy the meat that she and Sokka had hunted together. They’d gotten a lucky break - during a scouting mission to look around for what kinds of animals might be nearby, they spotted a small group of Buffalo yak. It was a dangerous and risky move to try to kill even one creature of that size with just the two of them, but they gave it their all and it worked out in the end. Mizuko had gone home with bumps and bruises and sung praises about Sokka’s increasing skill in hunting until he turned red.</p><p>In that time, Sokka and Katara both turned aged up as well. Sokka turned fifteen and Katara turned fourteen. Boys and girls aren’t really considered “men” and “women” until their sixteenth birthdays, however, and Sokka had jokingly said that he felt underappreciated for not having a feast as big as the one held during Mizuko’s birthday. Katara had swiftly knocked him over and head and profusely thanked the others for preparing the celebrations.</p><p>Mizuko danced around the fires at their parties, and she’d felt nothing but joy when the littlest children of the Tribe were allowed to join in, too. Usually they’re held back because their parents are worried they might get too close to the fire and hurt themselves, but this time they got to run around and play with the older members, plucking the strings of instruments they didn’t even know about, singing and shouting at the top of their little lungs all night long. </p><p>Mizuko looked out across the village, standing at the end of one side of the bonfire with a cup of juice in her hand. She was definitely considered an adult now, so no doubt she would probably be allowed to try alcohol if she wanted to, but one whiff of the drink had scared her away for good. It had smelled downright <em> awful. </em> </p><p>“Mizu! Come dance!” Katara calls her from across the fire. She had her hair down, a rare sight considering she mostly wore it in a braid for simplicity, and a wide smile on her face from the night’s celebrations. </p><p>Mizuko grinned back, handing her cup off to someone else as she left her spot to join the younger girl.</p><p><em> Everything is perfect, </em> she couldn’t help but think. The people she knew and loved were safe and happy, and no matter what struggles they faced in the past and may face in the future, they always stood <em> together </em>as a community. </p><p>
  <em> Absolutely perfect. </em>
</p><hr/><p>Mizuko slept in the next morning, exhausted from the night of dancing, partying, and generally doing her best to keep the younger children entertained before they were sent off to sleep. When she woke up, she could see the bright sun peeking through the flaps of her tent, and heard a familiar voice calling out her name. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she tried to understand what they were saying. It was a bit muddled sounding due to her still being half asleep, but she finally made out the sound of Kanna calling her name, asking her to get up. </p><p>“Gran?” Mizuko yawned out, squinting her eyes in the bright light as she opened the flaps of her tent. The older woman was standing right outside, whispering her name. When Mizuko appeared, Kanna took her hand to make her stand.</p><p>“There’s a newcomer, Mizuko, a foreigner,” Kanna spoke quietly to her, worry clear in her blue eyes. Mizuko took her time mulling over her words and, once she understood what she meant, she snapped awake. </p><p>“Give me a moment to get dressed,” Mizuko said quickly, reaching back into her tent to grab her heavy winter coat and tie her hair back into a wolf tail. Her hand hovered over her weapon - a white and blue whale-tooth spear with several smaller teeth on the backside to create a saw-like effect - before she picked it up and slung it across her back. She didn’t want to seem outwardly hostile to whoever this new person may be, but she wanted it to be clear that she was <em> willing </em>to be, if needed. </p><p>Once she was done preparing herself, she left her tent and nodded to Kanna, who nodded back and began taking her to where the foreigner was. </p><p>“Katara and Sokka brought him back after going on a fishing trip early this morning,” she whispered as they approached. That was definitely important information to Mizuko. Katara was a sweet girl who could largely be considered naive, so Mizuko knew she was willing to help almost anyone who happened to find themselves this far South. Sokka, however, was a boy who refused to trust any stranger and did anything in his power to keep his people safe from outsiders. If <em> Sokka </em>had chosen to bring him back, then maybe this stranger was a trustworthy individual.</p><p>Either way, she would have to see for herself. As she approached, she noticed a couple of things. Firstly, the shabbily-made watchtower that Sokka had constructed a few weeks ago (or, rather, a few years ago before it had been destroyed and rebuilt again) was knocked clean over, compacted snow left in piles all around where it once stood. It looked like something had run straight into it. Secondly, there was a small crowd gathered near the main campfire, and she reasoned that the stranger must be in the center. She moved through the crowd easily, everyone parting ways for her, most of them relieved she was finally there.</p><p>Once Mizuko was on the other side of the wall of people, she nearly stopped dead in her tracks. This stranger that everyone was worried about… he looked like a little boy. Younger than even Katara. He wore odd orange and yellow clothes, and she wondered how he was not freezing with so few layers on. He didn’t wear a hood to keep his ears or bald head warm, he had no thick winter gloves to keep his fingers from getting frostbite, and the leather boots he wore looked thin like they weren’t even good enough to stay put together for a long walk. On top of all of this, he had blue arrows painted - or tattooed - across his body. </p><p>Sokka and Katara stood by him, with Sokka having his arms crossed and staring moodily at the young boy and Katara talking with him excitedly. Mizuko saw the boy also carried what looked like a long walking staff.</p><p>When the crowds parted for Mizuko, they had all gone silent as she stepped into the front of the group. Sokka and Katara looked over at her, and while they both smiled at the sight of her being present, Katara looked a little nervous as well. Likely because she wanted her to approve of the boy.</p><p>Mizuko wasn’t the Chieftain of the Tribe, and she had no official title or power here, but because of her skills as a waterbender and a hunter, and her persistent desire to be a part of any important decision the Tribe had to make, they all began looking to her for guidance anyway. A few years ago, she would have struggled with this burden of responsibility, shunned away from it and left to simply live a carefree life on her own. Now, however, she had accepted it and adopted it into her personality. She had to do what she could to keep her people afloat in this world.</p><p>“Mizu! Good, you can tell Katara that outsiders aren’t welcome here!” Sokka uncrossed his arms, walking toward her while pointing back at the little boy.</p><p>Katara frowned at him, putting an arm protectively on the boy’s shoulder. “He’s harmless! And he’s just a helpless kid! Do you really want to send him out into the frozen wilderness, on his own?” Katara pleaded with Mizuko, looking into her eyes. The boy frowned and opened his mouth to speak, just beginning to argue that he was <em> not </em>helpless, when Sokka interrupted.</p><p>“He could be a spy! The Fire Nation are ruthless monsters, I wouldn’t put it above them to send little kids out here just to make us lower our defenses!”</p><p>Mizuko watched them bicker back and forth for another moment before she sighed and decided to intervene. She stepped forward to physically block the two siblings from arguing any further, walking towards the stranger. Despite the strange situation he’d found himself in, he seemed rather at ease - he smiled up at Mizuko with warm eyes and his pose was entirely relaxed.</p><p>He didn’t think he was in danger, didn’t think of her as a threat. This either meant that he was not here to hurt them and expected the same in return, or that he intended to hurt them and he was simply too confident in his own abilities to think of them as dangerous. Mizuko narrowed her blue eyes down at him.</p><p>He stuck his hand out at her and grinned a friendly smile. </p><p>“I’m Aang! Are you the Chief of the Tribe? It looks like you’re in charge around here,” he spoke just as calmly as he looked, and sounded like an innocent boy. </p><p>Mizuko didn’t want to be as paranoid and untrusting as Sokka tended to be, but she couldn’t help but think that if this kid really <em> was </em>a spy from the Fire Nation, she needed to keep her distance so he couldn’t hurt her.</p><p>She grabbed his hand, shaking it with a firm grip and a small, tentative smile.</p><p>“Hey, Aang. My name is Mizuko. I’m not the Chief, I just…” she looks around at the Southern Water Tribe folks around her - all children, women, and elderly - then looks back at him. “..happen to be the only warrior here.”</p><p>Sokka harrumphed at that, but Mizuko didn’t turn to look at him. It was true, technically. Although she never got to go Ice-Dodging as a rite of passage that most warriors went on to receive their ranking, the Elders of the Tribe had made the unanimous decision to give her the mark she deserved anyway. </p><p>“Oh,” Aang looked around, confused. “How come? Where’d they all go?”</p><p>At the innocent question, a hush fell over the entire village. They all remembered the men who left - fathers, husbands, sons, and brothers - and wondered if they would ever see them again. Mizuko’s fists tightened into balls, and she frowned. </p><p>“They’re gone,” she explained simply in a stern tone. “Now, why are you here? And why are you wearing those clothes?” She knew, logically, that oranges and yellows were the colors that Airbenders wore a long time ago. But everyone knew that they were all dead, so there was no reason this boy should be wearing their colors. Not unless he stole them.</p><p>Aang picked at his clothes, looking down at them in confusion.</p><p>“Oh, well, these are my Airbending robes. Never seen them before? I guess Air Nomads don’t really come out this far South, huh? Maybe because it’s so cold,” he began to ramble, and Katara stepped in to explain for him.</p><p>“Mizu, we found him frozen in an iceberg. He was out there all alone, so we brought him back with us. Please, don’t kick him out! I…” She turned back to look at him, and they smiled at each other. She turned back to Mizuko and held out her hands. “I have a good feeling about him. I trust him.”</p><p>Sokka threw his hands up in the air, agitated. “You can’t trust him! You just met him, Katara! And we still don’t know if he’s a Fire Nation spy!”</p><p>“He’s an Airbender, Sokka! He <em> can’t </em>be a spy! You saw him fly with his glider!” Katara shot back.</p><p>“Yeah, and it destroyed my watch tower! Now I can’t <em> watch </em> for the Fire Nation! He did it on purpose!”</p><p>Mizuko looked back at the young boy while the siblings argued again. She took a deep breath in, shut her eyes, and ran a gloved hand down her face. She really didn’t want to have to deal with this so soon after waking up. Her mind felt muddled from being thrust into something so quickly, and she desperately tried to separate all the thoughts in her mind into something she could follow and make a plan out of. Everyone was looking at her - <em> to </em>her - to make a choice.</p><p>Finally, she opened her eyes again. With one quick motion of her arms, the snow beneath Sokka and Katara’s feet shifted so suddenly that they both fell flat on their faces. </p><p>“That’s enough arguing! Sokka, go.. Rebuild your watchtower or something. Katara, don’t you have chores to be doing?” Both siblings frowned and stood back up, wiping snow off their clothes and faces. Sokka gave Aang one last stink eye before he slinked off to go find his broken tower, and Katara hesitated. She looked Mizuko in the eye, silently pleading with her, before she went off with Gran-Gran to finish her work.</p><p>“And you,” Mizuko pointed at the boy. She glanced back at Katara, who was watching her as she walked away, and she sighed. “You can stay if you can promise not to bring us trouble. Got it?” </p><p>She didn’t look back, but she could just <em> feel </em>the beaming smile Katara was sending her way. Aang grinned wide and ran forward at a speed just a little too fast to be normal, wrapping his arms around Mizuko’s midsection in a tight hug.</p><p>“Oh, thank you! Thank you so much! I haven’t gone penguin sliding in so long!”</p><p>She felt mildly uncomfortable at being touched by a stranger, but she smiled after a moment and returned the affectionate hug. Despite all the worries and paranoia swirling through her mind, he <em> did </em>seem to be a genuinely innocent child… and she couldn’t bear the thought of sending a child out in the cold by himself.</p><p>After the initial meeting, Mizuko busied herself around the Village with various tasks. She helped some other women clean up the main area from last night’s activities, nodding along to their hushed chatter about the newcomer but not really saying much about her own thoughts on the matter. When she passed by the small hut that women did the washing in, she decided to help Katara wash a few loads of laundry too. The younger girl was all chatter, going on and on about the new boy and how she just <em> knew </em>he would be important somehow. A few minutes into that, though, and Mizuko got tired of hearing it. She made up some excuse to go, and Katara waved her off.</p><p>She circled the Village border, looking for cracks in the walls and making sure the various traps that she and Sokka had put down were still there and not broken or frozen over. As she walked leisurely, she used her whale-tooth spear as a walking stick - poking and jabbing at things that she didn’t want to lean down to touch. When she was finished, she looked over the walls and saw that Sokka was slowly rebuilding his tower. When it fell over and he started on another loud rant about the Airbender boy, she decided to double-check the walls and the traps. </p><p>You know, just in case something had happened since her last check. Entirely not because she didn’t want to listen to him right now.</p><p>After the second walk around the Village border, this time at a much slower and relaxed pace as she used it as an excuse to just mull over the events of today, she sighed and decided she’d done enough avoiding. Still, she took her time walking back, too. She slung her spear behind her and attached it to the belt wrapped around her midsection, fastening it to her back.</p><p>Once she was safely back within the walls of her home, she noticed Sokka grouchily sitting by the front gates, looking out over the walls with a frown.</p><p>“Hey, Sokka. Looking for invaders?” She half-joked. Everyone liked to point and laugh at how overly paranoid he seemed about being attacked at any time, but considering what he’d lost the last time the Fire Nation attacked, she couldn’t bring herself to think that he was being stupid about it. He had every right to feel upset and worried. She just wished he could learn to enjoy life every now and again instead of distrusting everything.</p><p>He sighed at her, and leaned back in his pile of snow he was using as a seat. “Katara left with the foreigner a little while ago. I can’t see them anymore, but I’m <em> sure </em>they’re around here somewhere…”</p><p>Mizuko reared back a bit in surprise. </p><p>“Katara left? Outside the walls, without telling anyone? With a <em> stranger? </em> ” Mizuko frowned. She knew that Katara felt an innate sense of trust for Aang, but she didn’t really <em> know </em>him, didn’t know whether he was truly a threat or not. Along with that, she shouldn’t be going outside the walls anyway. Winter was coming up, and storms would become frequent soon - not to mention what animals might be lurking around.</p><p>When Sokka nodded, looking torn between expressing his worry for his sister or going on another rant about the Airbender, Mizuko grabbed her spear from her back and turned around, heading right back out the entrance.</p><p>“Wait! You’re leaving, too?” Sokka called after her.</p><p>“Yeah,” she answered over her shoulder, walking away. “I’m gonna go find them, make sure they’re okay. I’ll be back soon, Sokka!” Her voice became louder as she walked further and further away to make sure he could hear her.</p><p>After a few minutes of walking through the snow, she found the trail of the two younger kids. First there were a lot of footprints, and Mizuko could easily tell the difference between Katara’s heavy winter boots and Aang’s thin leather shoes. Next, there seemed to be some kind of scuffle, several webbed footprints approaching one of Aang’s footprints in the snow, and then…</p><p>Mizuko let a smile cover her face when she understood what must have happened here. She had never gone penguin sledding herself, always too busy with something as she grew up - waterbending practice, training Sokka, hunting, training Katara, rinse and repeat - but she knew the signs of one that had happened. After a few steps of webbed feet, the footprints were replaced with the smooth indents of the penguin’s stomach as they sled down the hill.</p><p>She could see in the distance where the tracks were leading. They went down a steep hill, then inside of a cave of some kind, and out the other end that went around a bend. She couldn’t see much further after that, especially over the hills and bumps that they must have passed on their adventure.</p><p>Mizuko sighed and shook her head with a small smile. She bent back to wrap her spear in the covering on her back once more, and got in her Waterbending pose. Feet a little bit apart, back straight, arms raised at chest level - she took a deep breath in, shutting her eyes as she felt the icy air enter her lungs and swirl all throughout her body. When she opened her eyes again, her arms went up above her head, then shot down to her sides with her palms facing the sky. In an instant, the snowy trail that one of the penguins had left turned into smooth ice, and she smiled as she stepped onto it and pushed herself forward.</p><p>Her slide began slowly, using her Waterbending to push her forward on the ice. When she began going downhill, she crouched down low with her arms out to her sides, ready to bend again in a moment’s notice if she needed to turn or stop. Otherwise, she grinned widely as she practically <em> flew </em>down the hillside, the air flowing through her hair and ruffling up the furs and fabrics of her clothing. </p><p>She couldn’t help but laugh with joy when she entered the ice cave, moving herself to slide along the walls and even on the ceiling before exiting it into the sunlight again. She was always so busy trying to be a good role model for everyone younger than her in the Tribe, it’d been so long since she’d had reckless fun like a child. </p><p>The moment she slid across the bend of a steep hill, sending snow flying from the force of her glide, the smile was wiped from her face and replaced with a worried and shocked expression. She looked down at the ground to make sure she hadn’t made a mistake - but she hadn’t. She was still following their trail. </p><p>The trail led directly to the old abandoned Fire Navy ship. Her wide blue eyes stared at it for another moment, and she knew that the cold shiver she felt was a twinge of fear. Ever since she was a child, she’d always been told to stay away from the metal monstrosity. There were all kinds of terrifying stories that the adults of the Tribe would tell around a fire late at night, but honestly, even if they hadn’t told ghost stories all of her life, she was too afraid of the history behind the thing to get too close to it anyway. The knowledge that this beast was built for the sole purpose of coming to her home and hurting her people was enough to keep her far away from it.</p><p>As she approached the ship, still sliding across the ice she created under her feet, she slowed to a stop just a couple of feet away. She saw the trail had turned from the smooth belly of the penguins into their footsteps again, and she knew that they must have gone inside. </p><p><em> Maybe Sokka was right, maybe I shouldn’t have let Aang stay. </em>Katara knew better than to go near the ship, there was no way she would have done this on her own if the Airbender hadn’t been there to influence her. Mizuko frowned, and her hands balled into fists at her sides. She walked forward, hesitating in the doorway before entering. For a few feet, their trails were still clear as they dragged some snow into the ship. Beyond that, Mizuko had no idea where they might be. </p><p>She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, “Katara! Are you in here?!” Her voice echoed around the metal ship, and she shivered. This was the first time she’d ever stepped foot inside of it, and she felt a sense of horror at the visible signs of a fight that had taken place here years ago. There were discarded pieces of armor, helmets with chunks torn out of them, and splotches of something dried onto the floors and walls that looked a little too red to be rust.</p><p><em> “Mizu! We’re in here! Follow my voice!” </em> She finally heard Katara’s voice call back to her. Relief flooded through her system like cold water over the heat of anxiety she had felt. With one last glance to the scene that was slowly unfolding in her mind, she ran through the halls as fast as she could to find Katara. </p><p>She found herself in what looked like a weapons’ room, several different kinds of blunt and bladed weaponry lining the walls. Mizuko had never even seen some of these things before, and most of them looked far more advanced than her simple whale tooth spear. She walked toward one wall, reaching her hand out to hover over the dusty weapons. They’ve been here collecting dust and cobwebs for a long time, ever since Kanna had been a little girl. She closed her hand over the handle of something that caught her eye, and pulled it from the rack.</p><p>It was a black, white, and red double bladed staff. Using her gloves to wipe the dust off of the blades, she saw that, despite the years of unuse, they were still sharpened enough to seriously injure or kill. She did an experimental twirl of the staff, and was pleased with herself when she found that the weight and the balance felt very similar to her spear. It wouldn’t be hard to get used to using this. She was finally reminded of why she originally came here when she heard Katara call her name quietly. Mizuko turned around.</p><p>Katara and Aang were on one side of the room, and her momentary anger at Aang convincing Katara to go into the ship disappeared when she saw that the young boy looked like he had just gone through something traumatic. He was sitting on the ground with his hands cradling his head as he shook it, as if he was trying to get his own thoughts out of his head.</p><p>“What happened?” Mizuko asked, walking towards them slowly. “Did he… see something?” Considering what she had seen after entering the ship, she knew there must be dead bodies around the ship somewhere. Aang was only a child - she couldn’t imagine what he might be thinking if he’d found a bloody room.</p><p>“No, he..” Katara began explaining, lowering her voice as she walked towards Mizuko as if to tell a secret. “Mizu… Remember how Sokka and I found him frozen in an iceberg?”</p><p>Mizuko nodded her head. “So you said.”</p><p>“Right. I guess we just assumed he was only frozen for a few days… but, as it turns out, he was frozen in there for over a hundred years! He doesn’t even know about the war going on!” Katara’s eyes were wide in both confusion at how something like that might be possible, and concern for her new friend.</p><p>Mizuko’s eyes widened, and she looked back down at Aang in surprise. </p><p>Aang shook his head again, looking up at them. “A hundred years… I can’t believe it…” He muttered. Katara sunk down beside him, putting her hand on his shoulder in a reassuring touch. Mizuko did the same on the other side, wondering what she could possibly say to help him.</p><p>“I’m sorry, Aang. Maybe, somehow, there’s a bright side to all of this,” Katara tried to reason with a small smile.</p><p>Aang smiled at her, nodding. “Well… I did get to meet you.” They shared a look, and Mizuko stood back up. </p><p>“We should get out of here. I don’t wanna be in here any longer,” Mizuko muttered. She briefly wondered whether she should take them out the way they came in, or find another way out. The entrance she’d taken had the blood and bodies lying around, and she didn’t want Aang <em> or </em>Katara to see that sight. Then again, she didn’t know if there were more bodies lying around in other parts of the ship. Before she could think too hard about it, Katara touched her hand to Mizuko’s arm, getting her attention.</p><p>“Are you really going to keep that, Mizu?” Katara asked, sounding unsure as she pointed at the double bladed staff that Mizuko had picked up. The older girl looked down at the weapon, and hummed in thought.</p><p>“I know…” She began. “I know it wouldn’t be a good idea to bring a Fire Nation weapon back home, but, look at how much better it is than our usual weapons! I could repaint it so it’s not red anymore, and I could fight a lot better with something like this.” Mizuko finally nodded her head, deciding she would keep it. </p><p>Katara looked like she wanted to argue, but nodded her head silently instead. Aang looked at the weapon in her hands and frowned, hugging his arms to himself. Mizuko knew that Airbenders used to be passive, friendly people - he must hate the idea of fighting at all. For a moment, Mizuko thought about putting it back for his sake.</p><p>But that moment passed quickly, and Mizuko took the lead out of the room while the two younger ones followed her. The Airbenders could <em> afford </em> to be kind and gentle and peaceful, both because of where their temples were situated, but also because that was <em> before </em> the war was going on. Now, with the raids on her home that happened every handful of years, she needed to be able to fight to protect her people. If Aang couldn’t approve of that reality… Well, perhaps he <em> shouldn’t </em>stay here.</p><p>Mizuko took a different turn than the one she had entered with, determined to find a different way out. They didn’t need to see the same things she’d seen. When she entered a room with a hole in the ceiling that she thought they could climb out of, she stopped dead in her tracks. She took a step backwards, almost running into Katara as she stepped into the room behind her. </p><p>“Wait!” Mizuko called to Katara, just a moment too late. She had stopped because she saw the wire on the ground, half buried beneath the snow in the room but just visible enough for her eyes. Katara hadn’t seen it, however, and tripped right over it. She went sprawling over on the ground, and the door shut with a heavy <em> clang! </em>behind both of the Waterbenders. Turning around with wide, panicked eyes, Mizuko saw that Aang was separated on the other side of the closed gate. He gripped the bars and looked at them with wide eyes.</p><p>“Katara! Are you okay?!” He asked with a shout, definitely much louder than necessary. Mizuko felt a twinge of annoyance at the fact that he only asked about her, but she ignored it. Now wasn’t the time to get all petty. </p><p>“I’m okay! I’m okay,” she reassured him as she patted the snow off her clothes. She turned to Mizuko, her eyes clearly projecting her fear. “Mizu, what should we do?”</p><p>Mizuko looked at her, then turned to look at Aang on the other side of the door. </p><p>“We should-” before she could continue, they heard several sounds going off at once.  A valve seemed to explode, steam hissed through the halls, and suddenly, they all saw that a flare of some kind had gone up into the air outside of the ship. Mizuko raised her arms to strap the new weapon on her back, right next to her spear, and she marched forward towards the hole in the ceiling. When she turned back, her eyes were narrowed and she looked much more serious than before. </p><p>“Aang, get out through the entrance and go back to the Village. Katara and I will go through the hole and meet you there. Got it?” Aang nodded his head and turned, running off with a gust of wind. Then she looked over at Katara, who seemed reassured at Mizuko’s decision making. “Come here, Katara, and hold on.”</p><p>With a few smooth motions of her hands, Mizuko bent the snow in the room into water that lifted them out through the hole in the ceiling. When they were on the roof of the metal ship, she knelt down on the ground and Katara climbed onto her back without another word. She stood back up, corrected Katara’s position for a moment, and then leapt off of the metal monstrosity. She used her free hands to bend the snow around them, leaping up from the ground to meet them halfway and soften their fall. Katara buried her face into Mizuko’s hood, holding on tightly. Mizuko was not confident enough in her bending ability to just jump straight to the ground without breaking something - probably her own legs - so they made several smaller jumps.</p><p>When they were on the ground, Katara climbed down and they began running off toward the village. They saw some tracks on the ground and knew that Aang had left already.</p><p>“What was that thing, Mizu? Are we gonna be in trouble?” Katara asked as they ran.</p><p>Mizuko didn’t respond, her mouth drawn in a tight line and her brows furrowed. She knew what it was - a flare. A signal. And it was likely that the others in the Village knew what it was, too. She didn’t know how far the signal could be spotted from, but she hoped with everything she had that there were no Fire Navy ships nearby. </p><hr/><p>Several miles away, sitting still in the Antarctic ocean, was a metal ship with the emblem on the Fire Nation on it. Despite this, it did not belong in the official Fire Navy, nor was it even allowed within the boundaries of the Fire Nation. The crew on the ship was not an official one, many of them having questionable morals and histories, some of them criminals running from something or someone.</p><p>One such ‘criminal’ was looking through a ship telescope with his right eye - the left side of his face was burnt, removing his eyebrow and narrowing his eye permanently. Through the glass, he watched the scene before him - two Water Tribe women running away from an old Fire Navy ship. </p><p><em> A Waterbender? </em> He questioned mentally. The Sages had always said the current Avatar was supposed to be an Airbender - but here he stood, watching a <em> Waterbender </em>light the flare on the old ship. Maybe it had been on purpose, or maybe it’d been activated on accident, he didn’t really care either way. He knew that there were no more Waterbenders in the Southern Water Tribe, several raids on the South Pole from his own Nation had ensured that a long time ago.</p><p><em> Perhaps…? </em>He sighed, agitated. He removed himself from the telescope and turned to issue out an order. </p><p>“Go wake my uncle!” He barked to one of the armored men on his crew. They nearly jumped right out of their armor in shock, hurriedly turning around to do as they were told. “Tell him I think I’ve found the Avatar.”</p><p>He watched through the scope again, moving it to see where the two women were running. A village made of snow and ice popped out at him, and he narrowed his eyes. </p><p>"You can't hide from me any longer."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Episode Three: The Avatar?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>((A/N: Thank you for the kind words and comments so far! They put a grin on my face and motivate me to keep writing when my ADHD brain tells me to just watch YouTube videos. A quick note regarding the update schedule for this story;</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Simply put, there is none! I write a chapter, I pass it off to my good friend so she can beta it for me and check for mistakes that I might make, and then as soon as she’s done with it, I update it on AO3 and FF! So, there might only be a day or two between some updates, or a full week between other updates. Sorry for the irregular scheduling, but it’s the best I can do because I’m terrible at committing to timed things lol. </p>
<p>Otherwise, enjoy the story!))</p>
<hr/>
<p>By the time Mizuko and Katara had gotten close enough to their Village to see the front entrance, Aang had joined back up with them. Apparently he had only run twenty or so feet away from the ship before stopping and waiting, worried that they wouldn’t be able to make it off the ship on their own. When they’d reconvened, he immediately started talking, asking questions about what the light had been and why Mizuko looked upset. Katara and Aang slunk back a few feet to whisper among themselves while Mizuko took the lead as they walked back home.</p>
<p>When they got closer, they noticed everyone in the Village standing in the entrance, Aang’s flying bison a few feet away in the deep snow. Kanna was at the front of the group, looking at them with sad eyes. The flare was still in the sky even now, slowly falling to the ground, and Mizuko knew for a fact that everyone had seen it.</p>
<p>Some of the younger children shouted with excitement and ran forward, excited that Aang was back to play with them again, and Mizuko sighed. When they ran past her to crowd around the young boy, she stopped where she stood and glanced at several of the people standing in front of her. Some of the Elders looked upset, Kanna looked sad, and Sokka looked furious. Mostly, though, everyone else looked <em> scared. </em></p>
<p>“I knew it!” Sokka shouted, pointing an accusing finger at the young Airbender behind Mizuko. “You signaled the Fire Navy with that flare! You’re leading them straight to us, aren’t you?”</p>
<p>Katara and Aang walked forward and the small crowd of children followed.</p>
<p>“Aang didn’t do anything, Sokka!” Katara defensively argued back, moving to stand in front of the younger boy. She glanced at Mizuko, almost begging her to defend Aang as well.</p>
<p>Mizuko stayed silent, watching the scene play out. She couldn’t deny the fact that she was terrified of the implications of that flare going off. </p>
<p>“We were on this old ship,” Aang started talking next. “And there was this old booby trap! And, well, we-”</p>
<p>“I did it,” Mizuko finally spoke. “<em> I’m </em>the one who set off the flare. Not Aang.”</p>
<p>Aang and Katara both stared at her with wide eyes, and the group in front of the entrance to the Village gasped in shock. Kanna shut her eyes and shook her head slowly, as if she’d known all along and was just waiting for Mizuko to admit to it. Sokka himself looked like he didn’t even know how to process that information; all of his anger had been directed at Aang, the seemingly untrustworthy individual. Now, when it came out that it was actually <em> Mizuko </em>who’d set off the signal that could possibly mean trouble for them, he didn’t know whether he was still angry or not.</p>
<p>“For so long now, you have strived to be considered mature and wise, struggling to prove to everyone here that you were deserving of the title of the Warrior,” Kanna spoke slowly, her tone low. She looked right at Mizuko, and the young girl fought the urge to look down at her feet like a child being scolded. She had to meet Kanna’s eyes; she had to understand the gravity of her actions and the repercussions that could follow. “Mizuko, what you’ve just done…” When the grandmotherly old woman stopped talking and simply opted to look away from her, Mizuko felt tears well in her eyes. She knew that Kanna was disappointed in her, and it stung more than a physical hit would ever hurt.</p>
<p>She was right to be disappointed, of course. What Mizuko had just done was immature and stupid of her, and she can’t believe it had actually happened. She felt like she must still be asleep now, that this is a bad dream and she’d wake from it any minute now. </p>
<p>“Now, we could all be in danger,” Kanna finally spoke again after the tense silence, looking back up at Mizuko with sad eyes.</p>
<p>“Wait, don’t blame Mizuko!” Aang spoke up loudly, walking through the small crowd of children still gathered by his legs to stand next to the older girl. Mizuko wanted to turn around and put her hand on his mouth, to tell him to shut up so she could take the blame for everything that had happened and nobody else would have to be punished for her actions. She didn’t, though, and Aang pointed at his chest as he defended her. “I brought Katara onto the ship, Mizuko just followed us to bring us back! It wasn’t her fault!”</p>
<p>Mizuko finally turned to look at him, and muttered under her breath, “<em> Aang, stop! </em>”</p>
<p>He looked her in the eye and muttered right back, “I won’t let you take the fall for my mistakes.”</p>
<p>Stunned into silence at his surprisingly mature words, Mizuko didn’t say anything when Sokka took a step forward from the group behind them and pointed at Aang accusingly.</p>
<p>“You see!” He shouted, angry. “The traitor confesses! Warriors, get away from the enemy!”</p>
<p>The children crowded around Aang slowly left his side, too young to fully understand the gravity of the situation and not quite sure why they couldn’t just go out and play with their friend again. As they left his side and rejoined the bigger group at the front entrance to the Village, Mizuko felt like she knew what was coming next. </p>
<p>“The foreigner is banished from our village,” Sokka spoke lowly. Katara’s eyes went wide, then narrowed in anger at her brother.</p>
<p>“Sokka, you don’t know what you’re doing! You’re making a mistake!”</p>
<p>He shook his head. “No, I’m keeping my promise to Dad. I’m protecting you from threats like him!” He pointed his hand at Aang again.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, Katara looked over at Mizuko in anger, shouting, “Mizuko’s the one who set off the flare! Are you gonna banish her too?! Aang is not our enemy!” Mizuko furrowed her brow in agitation, feeling like Katara was calling <em> her </em> the enemy. Sokka opens his mouth to say something, argue back again, but Katara cuts him off. “Can’t you <em> see? </em> Aang has brought us something we haven’t had in a long time! <em> Fun. </em>”</p>
<p>“We can’t fight Firebenders with <em> fun, </em>Katara!” Sokka returned. </p>
<p>“You should try it some time,” Aang opted with a smile.</p>
<p>Mizuko frowns. “You’re <em> not </em>helping the situation with your sarcasm, Aang.” The younger boy shrunk back from her scolding, eyes lowering.</p>
<p>“Get out of our village, now!” Sokka shouted at him.</p>
<p>“Don’t yell at him,” Mizuko interceded. She didn’t want Aang to be banished because of the flare - that truly was her <em> own </em>fault, after all. However, she couldn’t help but agree with the fact that he seemed to have a negative influence on Katara, as she would have never gone onto that ship if it weren’t for him. </p>
<p>“Oh, what, you want me to throw him a going away party?” Sokka responded sarcastically, frowning. “Come on, Mizu, you have to see the threat he poses to us! Don’t you?”</p>
<p>At the question, Katara and Aang both turned to look at her as well, waiting for her response. Looking over the group, she saw that even the other Villagers were looking at her. The children looked sad, some of them openly crying now in confusion as they didn’t understand what was going on. </p>
<p>Mizuko clenched her hands into fists, shutting her eyes tightly as emotions swirled through her mind and heart. It was <em> her </em>fault the flare went off. But it only went off because she needed to follow Katara into the ship to get her out safely, because Aang had encouraged her to go inside of it in the first place. Because of these events, she might have just lost the respect and trust of the Elders for her stupid decisions. Finally, after a tense moment of silence, her shoulders went lax and she opened her eyes again. When she spoke, her voice was low and full of regret.</p>
<p>“Aang… I think it would be best if you left.”</p>
<p>“You can’t mean that, Mizu!” Katara cried out, running to her side to grab at her coat. When Mizuko didn’t respond, didn’t even look up to meet her eyes, Katara backed away.</p>
<p>“Fine! Then… then I’m banished too!” She grabbed Aang’s hand and they began walking toward the giant bison. “Aang will take me to the North Pole, and I’ll find a Waterbending teacher there!”</p>
<p>“Katara, don’t!” Mizuko called out, turning around to face them. She was shocked Katara would even think to do such a thing - that she would willingly abandon her people and her home to go with a stranger on a journey that would lead them to the other side of the world. Admittedly, Mizuko thought the idea of finding a Waterbending teacher was incredible, and, if the situation weren’t so dire, she might have even agreed to leave too.</p>
<p>But the situation <em> was </em> dire. Due to the flare in the sky, her people, her <em> family </em>were at great risk at the moment if there were any Fire Navy ships around to notice it. Would Katara really leave them at such a time? For this boy she’d only just met?</p>
<p>“Katara, would you really choose him over your Tribe? Your family?” Sokka voiced Mizuko’s thoughts, desperation and hurt confusion in his voice. To him, he was doing everything absolutely right - protecting his family just as he promised his father he would do. He couldn’t possibly understand why Katara would be upset at his actions.</p>
<p>Aang and Katara stopped where they stood, several feet away from the rest of the people present. They talked back and forth for a moment, just out of range for Mizuko to hear their words clearly, before Katara backed away and Aang climbed on top of his travel companion. He smiled down at Katara sadly for a moment, then looked over at the others and waved goodbye. The children waved back to him, but everyone else stayed still and silent.</p>
<p>When his brown eyes landed on Mizuko, she felt guilt twist up her insides. She really did feel like he was taking the fall for her mistake - she felt like she was letting him be punished just so she could try to earn the respect of her people back. </p>
<p>But he waved to her too, with no anger or malice in his eyes or his smile, and Mizuko felt tears fill her eyes.</p>
<p>“Where will you go?” She found herself asking him.</p>
<p>He shrugged, looking around for a moment in thought. “I’ll make a camp somewhere over there for tonight, I guess.” When he pointed to a group of icy formations in the distance, she shook her head.</p>
<p>“It’s almost winter,” she responded. “There’s bound to be arctic hippos out that way. Big and dangerous animals. It’ll probably be better to go somewhere further away for tonight.”</p>
<p>“Oh, alright,” he nodded to her, accepting her advice without question. She waved goodbye to him, and he smiled back.</p>
<p>As soon as he took off, Mizuko saw Katara tensing up in a combination of anger and sorrow. Her hands balled into fists and she sniffled before Kanna walked up to her. The older woman tried to reassure the young girl, but Katara reacted in anger and stormed off.</p>
<p>Mizuko turned to follow her, to try to talk to her about the situation, but Sokka put a hand on her shoulder before she could pass by him.</p>
<p>“We don’t have time for it, Mizu! We have to prepare for an attack!” </p>
<p>Despite her desire to talk to Katara, to apologize for hurting her feelings with the banishment of the young boy, Mizuko couldn’t help but admit that Sokka was right. They didn’t know whether there <em> were </em>any ships nearby - perhaps nothing would happen at all, or maybe they’d be attacked within the hour. Her father’s old words floated around in her head, telling her to always hope for the best, but plan for the worst. </p>
<p>She nodded her head to Sokka, and he nodded back.</p>
<p>She heard him shouting orders to the other “warriors” of the Tribe, young boys who are far too young to really fight, as she ran off to her tent. The whale tooth spear held on her back was mainly meant for hunting, and while it <em> could </em>be used in a fight against other people, she had better weapons to use instead. When she arrived in her tent, she swapped out her daily winter boots with better shoes meant for sudden or rough movements. The bottoms of her “activity shoes”, as Sokka liked to call them, had small metal spikes that would make it much more difficult for her to slip around on ice or fall into deeper snow. In a pinch, she could also potentially use it in a fight with some well-placed kicks.</p>
<p>As she reached to her spear still slung across her back to put it away, she felt the cool metal of the weapon she had picked up while inside the ship. Startled, she paused for a moment. With the drama of everything that happened at the entrance, she had forgotten all about it. </p>
<p>Pulling it off of her back and holding it in both hands, she marveled at the sight for a moment. It was longer than her spear, with curved blades on both ends. The handle in the center of the weapon was soft but firm, like it was wrapped in several layers of leather, and dyed black while the rest of the staff was a muddy red color. The silver blades on either side were identical and symmetrical, still deadly sharp even after all these years. She wiped some dust off of the weapon and wondered if it had ever been used at all.</p>
<p>Pulling herself out of the revere for Fire Navy weapons that she had fallen into, she took off her blue spear and set it down inside the tent. She changed her clothes from the usual thick fabrics meant for keeping in warmth into something more meant for keeping out weapons. The outfit was colder, less furs to keep out the cold of the South Pole, but it would protect her better from Firebenders and that was the most important part of it. Then she strapped two smaller blades into her boots, about the length from her ankle to her calf, and moved them so they were hidden in the back away from the eyes of anyone who stood in front of her. They had been gifts from her father when she was very young - back then, in her childish hands, they seemed so much bigger. Now, she used them as throwing knives.</p>
<p>She took her hair down from the messy style it had gotten into after her several leaps off of the top of the old ship, then tied it back up neatly.</p>
<p>She picked up the Fire Navy weapon, deciding that this would be the one she used in whatever battle may appear. It was easily the best weapon she’d ever seen, and while she was glad to have something better than the almost primitive weapons that her Tribe usually used, it made her wonder if all of the Fire Nation soldiers who might have seen the flare used these weapons, too. </p>
<p>She shook the thought from her head, knowing that there was no time to be afraid right now. She ran outside and saw Sokka already standing by the front entrance, on top of the wall. He had also changed into better attire for fighting similar to hers, but she noticed he also wore Warpaint on his face. She had never worn it before, mostly due to the fact that it was meant for Nonbender warriors, but she could see just how intimidating the paint looked. Sokka may be a year younger than her, but Mizuko knew that he was a real warrior through and through.</p>
<p>“Any signs?” She asked him as she climbed up beside him.</p>
<p>“The fog is picking up,” he responded without looking at her. The fog could be natural, but considering what they were afraid was happening, it was most likely a fog created by something heavy pushing it forward; something like a ship coming their way.</p>
<p>Mizuko nodded her head, eyes downcast. She hoped they were wrong. She hoped nothing was coming, and nobody would have to get hurt today. Most people went back into their tents to stay hidden in case something <em> did </em>happen, but there were a few women and children standing around the fire in the center of the village, talking amongst themselves.</p>
<p>“Mizu,” Sokka began quietly after a moment of silence. She looked back up at him, face serious. “If they do come…” He trailed off.</p>
<p>She put her hand on his shoulder. </p>
<p>“If they come, we will protect our people and our home. That’s all you need to think about, Sokka, alright?” </p>
<p>He looked over at her, and she could briefly see past the tough guy facade he put up. He was a little boy, terrified of the idea of an enemy showing up at his door and forcing him into having to fight, to potentially lose his life, to keep them from destroying his home. Mizuko tightened her grip on his shoulder, and the face of a scared little boy disappeared, replaced with the painted face of a young man ready to risk it all to protect the people he loved.</p>
<p>He glanced down at the weapon in her hands, and frowned.</p>
<p>“You’re using a <em> Fire Navy </em>weapon?”</p>
<p>She looked down at it too, then lifted it up above her head and did several twirls around her head and body just to show it off. She caught it in both hands, grip tight, and turned to him with a smirk.</p>
<p>“Ever heard of fighting fire with fire?”</p>
<p>He looked confused for a moment, then couldn't help but crack a grin at her reference.</p>
<p>Their moment of joy was cut short with the sound of an explosion nearby, and they both looked toward the water with wide, searching eyes. Mizuko couldn’t see anything past the thick fog all around them, but she felt the tremors under her feet from the approach of something huge wading through frozen waters. Parts of the wall crumbled underneath their feet, and she frowned.</p>
<p>“We should get back. The wall might come down,” she reasoned. Sokka, however, refused.</p>
<p>“No, I won’t give them anything! Not even an inch of space into our home!”</p>
<p>She grit her teeth in agitation. “What are you going to do, Sokka? Push back their ship with your boomerang? They’re <em> going </em> to come, get back so you don’t get crushed under them!” As she tried to put a rational thought into his head, she backed away from the wall as pieces of it started coming apart from the heavy shaking of the snow.</p>
<p>“<em> No! </em>I refuse to-” </p>
<p>Sokka’s words trailed off, and Mizuko glanced back from her retreat to see what had stunned him into silence. When she saw it, her eyes went wide and her grip on the weapon went slack. </p>
<p>There, coming through the heavy fog, was a dark metal ship bigger than she had ever seen in her life. It was larger than the abandoned ship nearby, and bigger than the ships she had seen when she was a little girl.</p>
<p>To her chagrin, he refused to move even then. Mizuko could see his fingers shake in fear, but despite this, he readied his club and assumed a fighting stance as the shadow of the metal beast loomed over him. It covered half the village already, and Mizuko felt a cold in her heart that she had never felt before under the shadow of the monstrosity. Some part of her, something that remembered all her years of training and fighting, made her ready her grip on her double bladed staff despite the fear flowing through her veins.</p>
<p>“<em> Sokka! Get out of the way!” </em>Katara shouted over the deafening cracks of ice breaking underneath the heavy ship. The ship was no longer in the water anymore; it was breaking apart the land underneath it just to get closer.</p>
<p>Something about that knowledge sinking into her mind sparked an anger in Mizuko’s heart, and she took a calming breath. She was going to fight for her home, her people, her <em> family. </em>There was no room for fear or hesitation. Not now.</p>
<p>As expected, the ship kept approaching until it broke through the wall of the Village. Sokka didn’t move even then, and slid down with the rest of the broken snow and ice that collapsed. He readied his weapon again, until the front of the ship began lowering itself down like a walking ramp. He took a few unsteady steps back, then fell backwards when the ramp collided with the ground harshly, sending puffs of snow and ice flying everywhere.</p>
<p>Mizuko covered her face to protect it from the ice, rushing forward to help him stand up. She noticed that the rest of the Village had come back outside now, no longer hiding within their tents. She wanted to shout at them to hide, to get away from here as quickly as possible, but she knew it would be a wasted effort. If she and Sokka could not defeat their attackers, there’d be nowhere for her people to hide from them anyway.</p>
<p>Sokka stood up, and they both looked toward the ramp again, weapons at the ready.</p>
<p>Three figures begin descending the ramp, the one in the center front noticeably smaller than the other two. Not only was he smaller, but he was also the only one not wearing a white mask. The masks looked like skulls with big, empty eye sockets, and Mizuko hated the sight of them. The man not wearing a skull-mask had a massive scar over one side of his face, a burn scar that looked terribly painful to Mizuko’s eyes.</p>
<p>Sokka rushed forward, shouting loudly with his club high above his head. Mizuko tried to grab for him but he was out of her reach too quickly. With one, flexible move, the burned man raised his leg high enough to kick the weapon out of Sokka’s hands, and without lowering his leg to prepare for another strike, he kicked back and sent Sokka flying off the ramp into a pile of snow.</p>
<p>Mizuko winced at the sight, glad that there was the destroyed remnants of their Village wall to soften his fall. As the burned man and his two guards continued walking down the ramp, even more soldiers followed behind them. Mizuko’s breathing quickened just the tiniest bit, and she nervously shifted from one foot to the other. She had thought…</p>
<p><em> Spirits, what </em> <b> <em>did</em> </b> <em> she think? </em>Did she really think that there would only be three total men on that giant behemoth of a ship? Three easy targets for her and Sokka to fight and then the enemy would leave in utter shame at their defeat, leaving her home alone for good? Did she really think those naive thoughts? </p>
<p>A total of six guards stepped off the ship in pairs of three on either side of the burned man. He seemed to be the leader of them, and Mizuko defiantly stood in his way so he could go no closer to the people huddled together behind her. Her back was straight, her chin proudly raised, and her grip on the bladed staff in her hands was unwavering. She met his eyes; cool, calm blue against agitated, warm amber. For a moment, he seemed angry at her unwavering defiance, eyes narrowing at her and refusing to turn away. He glanced at the red and black weapon in her hands.</p>
<p>He opened his mouth to speak, and she rudely interrupted him.</p>
<p>“Turn around and <em> leave, </em>” Mizuko commanded with the bravest voice she could muster.</p>
<p>He seemed shocked at her words, amber eyes widening just the slightest bit before narrowing again. </p>
<p>“And what do <em> you </em> have to be bargaining with me? If you’re anything like <em> him </em>,” he pointed behind him without looking, right at Sokka who was still desperately trying to climb out of the snow he found himself buried under. “Then you’re just a fool with too much misplaced confidence.”</p>
<p>There was something about her that seemed familiar to him, but he couldn’t place a finger on it. All of the people in this Tribe wore the same clothing, so it was hard to pinpoint any exact differences. Her hair was cut differently, and a noticeably different color than the others, and he tried to remember where he’d seen it from.</p>
<p>She ground her teeth together, angry at the insult. </p>
<p>“Leave my home and I won’t have to kill you,” she said in a low voice, her grasp on the weapon tightening. </p>
<p>For a moment, there was tense silence. The threat hung in the air thickly, and both parties stared at each other as they waited for something to happen - for one side to give in first. Slowly, so slowly, a confident smirk found its way onto the burned man’s face, and he took a half step backwards as he prepared his battle stance. He had only come for one thing in particular, one <em> person </em> in particular, but his background as royalty demanded that he could not just <em> let </em>someone insult his pride like that. She needed to be taught a lesson in respect.</p>
<p>She frowned, eyes narrowed and teeth grit. Finally, she leapt forward. The people behind her gasped, and the guards in front of her didn’t move or make any sound. They seemed content to let their leader handle this battle.</p>
<p>The burned man raised his leg and gave a kick in her direction, a burst of flame leaping forward from thin air. Mizuko dropped to the ground to avoid it, but he aimed another blast of fire at her with a closed fist quickly, not giving her the time to collect herself and think. She rolled underneath and to the side, tugging on one of the knives in her boots. He seemed intent on not letting her get too close to him, so she’d have to use a long range weapon to distract him long enough for her to close the distance.</p>
<p>He didn’t see the blade moving toward him through the still-dissipating hot flames. It closed in too quickly for him to dodge it, but he raised his arms to protect his exposed face. The metal of the knife bit into the metal of his armor, getting stuck with a grinding noise. He grunted, more in anger than from the impact, and searched through the smoke to find her. A shadow fell over him, and he noticed a block of ice protruding from the ground that hadn’t been there before.</p>
<p><em> The Waterbender. </em> It was <em> her. </em>She’d used the smoke as a cover and the knife as a distraction to leap up into the air.</p>
<p>Narrowing his eyes in anger at not recognizing her before, he released a flaming wheel that spun all around him. Mizuko, in the air above him with her arm outstretched to throw the bladed staff like a spear, had no choice but to drop the weapon and bend the snow to form a protective shield beneath her as she fell into the fire.</p>
<p>She shouted as she landed, her knees banging against the hard ground roughly as she fell forward.</p>
<p>She panted, looking around wildly to find her dropped weapon. Before she could reach for it, a sudden heat appeared behind her, the back of her head feeling too warm for comfort. She twisted around to look, and found the burned man leveling a closed fist at her, heat collecting in the space between his knuckles and her face in a threatening manner.</p>
<p>“Tell me where he is,” he said in a low, confident voice. He knew he had won this fight.</p>
<p>She swallowed nervously. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She was telling the truth, but he didn’t believe her. </p>
<p>He inched his fist forward slowly, narrowing his eyes. She turned her head away, fighting the urge to crawl backwards. That would be shameful, to literally <em> crawl </em>away from the enemy in desperation to live. </p>
<p>“The <em> Avatar, </em> ” he shouted at her. She winced from the loud voice right by her ear, but her eyes went wide as soon as she understood his words. There were several audible gasps from the crowd of her people as well. “I <em> know </em>he’s here! He has to be! The last Airbender!”</p>
<p>At that, her head whipped around to look right into his eyes again. This meeting of the eyes was vastly different from the last; scared, shaken blue clashing against confident, calm amber.</p>
<p>She saw Sokka behind him, stunned into silence just like the rest of her people. She was glad he wasn’t attacking now, unsure of whether or not this man would have spared him a second time.</p>
<p>“Where-” He started again, interrupted by the very same person who’d interrupted him before.</p>
<p>“There was never any Airbender here,” she lied through her teeth confidently. All the trouble she’d been getting into through the years had made her into a very good liar when it came to getting <em> out </em>of trouble. She prayed her lies were believable to this man, too.</p>
<p>His brows pulled down together over his narrowed eyes, lips pulling back in an angry grimace. It enhanced the pull of the scar on one side of his face, and Mizuko decided that it was a very unflattering look.</p>
<p>“Don’t lie to me!” He shouted, the flames in front of his fist burning hotter. Mizuko had no doubt she must have something akin to a sunburn on her face by now, the flames felt too hot to not be burning her slowly. “The Avatar must be here!”</p>
<p>Sokka finally began moving again, the image of his family about to be burned to a crisp in front of him finally being processed in his mind. Katara, behind Mizuko with the others of the Tribe, began to run forward as well. She wouldn’t be able to do much, but she just<em> had </em> to do something to protect her friend. The other Southern Water Tribesmen reached forward to pull her back, and there was a collective shouting and arguing as everything seemed to happen all at once. Among the chaos, burning orange eyes never looked away from wide, terrified blue.</p>
<p>Finally, one of the guards behind the burned man caught Sokka in a chokehold before he could reach Mizuko, and the older girl could hear Katara breaking away from the others to run toward her. She had to do something, she <em> had </em>to protect them, protect her people too -</p>
<p>
  <em> But what could she do?  </em>
</p>
<p>When the guard leveled a fist at Sokka’s head, Mizuko opened her mouth and shouted her next words without really thinking.</p>
<p>“It’s <em> me, </em> I’m the Avatar!”</p>
<p>Everything stopped. The crunch of snow being compacted beneath thick winter boots stopped behind her as Katara froze. Sokka stopped trying to fight against the guard holding him in place, and even the guards themselves - who had been stoically still and silent this whole time - seemed to be shocked at the news. The man before her froze in place for a moment, as if he couldn’t comprehend what she was saying at first. </p>
<p>His eyes widened, and his stance went slack as the flame in front of his fist disappeared into the air. Her face immediately felt cooled off by the cold air replacing the heat, and she took this opportunity to stand up, backing a step away from the man when she did.</p>
<p>“The last Airbender died years ago, I’m the next one in the cycle!” She shouted emphatically, eyes wide as she put her hands to her chest as if pointing at herself. Her knowledge of the Avatar and the cycle was limited, and she was hoping he didn’t look too deep into anything she said to sell her lie. She knew that after air came water, and she would have to work with that small amount of information so she wasn’t caught in the lie.</p>
<p>“Mizu-” Sokka tried to call her name in a strangled voice from the chokehold he was still in, and the guard tightened his grip. A moment later, Sokka’s body went lax as he was knocked unconscious, the guard dropping him into the snow callously.</p>
<p>“<em> Stop it! </em> ” Mizuko shouted, tears collecting in her eyes. “Stop! I told you <em> I’m </em>the Avatar! Take me and leave them alone!” She gasped a bit, the swell of emotions gathering in her chest making it hard to breath in the cold winter air.</p>
<p>The man in front of her looked at her in silence for another moment, before nodding his head and relaxing his stance to stand up straight once more. With an almost uninterested wave of his hand, two guards rushed forward to grab her as the burned man began walking back up the ramp.</p>
<p>“Mizu, no!” Katara cried out behind them, and Mizuko tried to turn back to look, to give her adoptive little sister a reassuring nod, to let her know she had a plan - but that would be a lie, and Mizuko wasn’t strong enough to hide the fear and uncertainty from her face. So she didn’t turn to look, marching forward dutifully with the guards holding her shoulders tightly.</p>
<p>As the ship closed, she finally turned to look over her home, not knowing whether this would be the last time she ever saw it or not. Katara was knelt down in the snow beside her brother, tears falling down her face freely as she desperately tried to shake him awake. Kanna and the others of the Tribe were looking directly at Mizuko as the ship began moving away, their eyes wide in shock and sorrow.</p>
<p>To them, they knew that they would never see her again, just as they had never again seen the Waterbenders who were taken from their Tribe during the several raids over the years. Even if her lie about being the Avatar was found out, she was still a Waterbender, and they would surely kill her either way.</p>
<p>Tears fell from her eyes freely now, and with the very last sliver of sight she had from the closing ramp, she saw something in the far, far distance.</p>
<p>Something in the air, flying toward the village.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Episode Four: Fight Back</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>((A/N: See if you can count how many times I used the word "desperate" or "desperately" lol. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the chapter!))</p>
<hr/>
<p>Mizuko's hands were bound in rope in front of her after a few steps taken into the ship. Two guards stood by her side at all times, holding her arms so she couldn't try to fight back or escape, and they pushed her forward any time she stopped to look at her surroundings.</p>
<p>"I was surprised to find out that you were here, in the South Pole. I suppose the last Avatar really was a coward then, living his life in hiding until he died," The burned man's voice spoke up from several feet in front of her as they walked. She couldn't really see him all that well, a handful of guards standing between them, so she looked down at her feet as he spoke. She needed to keep selling the lie as best as she could, get these people as far away from her home as possible. "Were you planning on doing the same? Hiding, running from your destiny forever?"</p>
<p>"...What's your name?" She asked quietly, ignoring his question. She didn't know whether it would be best to keep talking about the Avatar and trying to develop the lie, or just to avoid the topic completely and hope he wouldn't question it.</p>
<p>Beside that thought in her mind, she was also trying to process new information that had come as a surprise to her - <em>Aang was the Avatar. </em>Of course he would have had to be special considering he was an Airbender, the <em>last </em>Airbender at that, but she never would have guessed…</p>
<p>
  <em>And she had agreed to banish him.</em>
</p>
<p>She was such an idiot.</p>
<p>"I am Prince Zuko," the man, Zuko, tore her out of her inner turmoil with a quiet answer. She glanced back up, trying to catch a peek at him, but she still couldn't quite make out his figure from all the armored guards in between the two of them. <em>Prince Zuko? </em>The crown prince of the Fire Nation? Mizuko felt her hands clenching into fists in front of her, the guards noticing it and tightening their grip on her arms in response. This was the man who would one day rule the Fire Nation?</p>
<p>She wondered, briefly, how he got the scar on his face. A small part of herself, the kind and compassionate part, felt pity for him. But as she remembered her father, Katara and Sokka's mother, the woman who died for her to live, and all the Southern Water Tribesmen who were out losing their lives fighting the Fire Nation in another Kingdom right now, she squashed that part of herself down. She couldn't help but hope that it had hurt. She hoped it had hurt more than <em>anything</em>.</p>
<p>She wanted to ask him <em>why, why do you do this, </em>but hesitated before finally deciding it wasn't worth it. He was a <em>Firebender. </em>Firebenders were nothing but violent and cruel, just as destructive as their own element. You can't reason with a forest fire, and she knew that she wouldn't be able to reason with this man either.</p>
<p>After a few more seconds of quiet walking, they took a turn and began walking up a flight of stairs. She looked up, her eyes widening at the sight of the bright sunlight filtering down into the dark stairwell. She had no idea how far away they were from the Southern Water Tribe now. She thought maybe only a few yards, that maybe when she walked up into the light she would look out over the side of the ship and see her people still sadly looking at her.</p>
<p>However, she knew that these things were faster than they looked. It had shown up within an hour and a half of the flare going off, and she watched how quickly it moved when it was crushing through the ice to break down the walls of her Village.</p>
<p>They walked up and out of whatever that passageway had been, and Mizuko blinked several times as she tried to get used to the brightness of being out in the sun again. The heat on her skin felt nice - it felt <em>different </em>than the heat she felt from the Firebenders all around her. She found that they all seemed to exude a naturally hot body temperature, and it didn't feel warm and comforting like the sun's rays did. It felt uncomfortable and threatening. A fire just waiting to blaze to life.</p>
<p>When she was pulled up onto what appeared to be the ship's deck, she finally decided she was tired of that threatening heat on her arms. She roughly shook herself loose from the tall men holding onto her. Everyone around her immediately moved into action, some of the guards conjuring up fire in their hands and facing it at her, others taking several steps back in fear.</p>
<p>She had to admit, she <em>liked </em>how afraid of her they seemed to be. She knew they were only afraid because they thought she really was the Avatar, thought of her as being all powerful and a force to be reckoned with, but still… The fact that these people who had hurt her and her family over the last hundred years were now practically soiling themselves in fear of her?</p>
<p>A smile found its way to her face, and she glared at the men reaching for her, wanting to subdue her again.</p>
<p>"Enough," Prince Zuko spoke calmly, waving a hand in the air at them to leave her be. She looked over at him, and found him glancing at her from the corner of his good eye as he continued walking forward. "She's tied up tight, she won't be a problem."</p>
<p>The guards hesitated, still reaching out to her with their uncomfortably warm hands, before finally pulling back and straightening up into respectable stances. She scoffed.</p>
<p>"I already saw you practically peeing yourselves in fear, there's no looking presentable now," she rolled her eyes at them. Deep down, she was terrified herself - her heart was pounding so loud she swore everyone on the whole ship could hear it, and she knew the flush on her cheeks wasn't from the heat of the men around her. Her fingers trembled minutely, and she clasped her hands together to try to hide it.</p>
<p>One of the guards behind her shoved her forward harshly, apparently unhappy with her comment. However, someone <em>else </em>seemed to have enjoyed it - she heard a hearty laugh somewhere in front of her, and she desperately tried peeking over the shoulders of the guards in front of her to see who it was.</p>
<p>When they parted ways, apparently having gotten to the point where they were done walking and were now surrounding her in a semi-circle, she saw who it was that was laughing.</p>
<p>There, a few feet in front of herself, was an elderly man laughing at her comment with a wide grin and a hand on his impressive belly. He had a small grey beard, a bun atop his balding head, and was wearing armor similar to the men around him. Although Mizuko noticed he was wearing a comfortable looking robe under his armor instead of an outfit meant for fighting like Prince Zuko and the guards were wearing.</p>
<p>"Don't encourage her, Uncle," Prince Zuko whispered in a scolding tone to the older man. Mizuko glanced back and forth between the two, trying to place the resemblance. However, she found that all she could focus on was the scar on the Prince's face, and she just couldn't see the two of them being related in any way.</p>
<p>"But it was funny," the elderly man drawled out with a smile that reached his warm, crinkled amber eyes.</p>
<p>No, she definitely could not see them being related. She automatically felt her shoulders relaxing from their tense positioning in the older man's presence, and she found herself actually curious to know more about who he was.</p>
<p>After a final scolding glare at his uncle, the Prince turned to stand beside the older man and look at Mizuko. She straightened her back and met his eyes, trying to ignore the pounding in her chest and how she felt short of breath. He narrowed his eyes at her, then nodded at one of the guards behind her while waving his hand at her legs. At first, her eyes went wide, confused about what was going on and feeling her fear worsen due to the unknown factor of the situation. Then, a guard approached and removed the second blade that she had attached to her leg for the battle she had been preparing for.</p>
<p>When he removed it and backed away from her, she sighed through her nose in relief and felt her shoulders sag. She felt tired, all of the intense emotions of the last few hours taking its toll on her, both physically and mentally.</p>
<p>The Prince was given the medium-sized weapon, and he turned it over in his hands a few times. He hummed in thought, letting his fingers roam across the blade, then looked back up at her again.</p>
<p>"Perhaps I'll give this to my father, as a gift."</p>
<p>Mizuko frowned, her brows lowering in anger.</p>
<p>"That was a gift from <em>my </em>father," she ground out between clenched teeth. His amber eyes widened just the smallest bit in surprise, then he looked over the weapon again.</p>
<p>"Where is he now?" He asked curiously. The question shocked Mizuko. She wondered if he was really curious, if he really didn't know, or if… <em>No. </em>Her face scrunches up in anger. He had to know. He was only asking the question to <em>remind </em>her of it, wasn't he? Toying with her emotions, reminding her of how powerful the Fire Nation was.</p>
<p>"<em>Dead,</em>" she whispered, filling her words with as much quiet venom as she could possibly muster. "Fire Nation soldiers killed him and his group, then followed his tracks back to my home and killed <em>more of us!</em>" Her words gained traction as they quickly flew from her mouth, getting louder and louder until she was shouting by the end of it. The Prince looked at her with wide, surprised eyes. She felt tears sting her eyes, and shut them tightly to hide it. She couldn't show weakness, not here, not to <em>them. </em>She couldn't show them that they were getting to her. She had to be brave and strong, like her father always was.</p>
<p>But <em>she </em>knew she was weak with letting their words get to her, and she didn't want to be. Her fear and self consciousness at being weak turned to anger instead, twisting in her gut until she felt the first tear roll down her cheek.</p>
<p>Then, she lunged at him.</p>
<p>He didn't move, didn't even flinch backwards as the guards around him leapt forward to catch her. They lifted her off of the ground by her arms as she struggled and desperately tried to break out of their grasp. She couldn't bend at all with her hands tied, and she couldn't really bend well with her feet in general. As she kicked one of the guards in the chest, a stream of water from over the side of the ship followed - though it did little more than splash one of them, drenching him in icy water.</p>
<p>"Take her below deck, to the prison hold!" She heard the Prince shouting over the sound of the struggle. "And tie up her feet as well!"</p>
<p>"<em>I hate you!" </em>She shouted over the shoulders of the guards carrying her off like a child, kicking her feet wildly. "Let me go!" Her voice was thick with sorrow and anger, mixing up together and leaking out into her words.</p>
<p>She felt like a little girl again, back when the Fire Nation came in their giant metal ships to attack her home. She felt the very same sense of helplessness, of weakness and fear, and she <em>hated it. </em>She had promised herself that she would never be so weak again, and all this time she thought she had been getting stronger. Then they came again, and they proved her wrong - she showed them that she was still a weak little girl and they shoved it back in her face.</p>
<p>The only promise she had kept, it seems, was doing anything she could to protect her family.</p>
<p>
  <em>But had she really?</em>
</p>
<p>They could easily turn this ship around and go back to her home to hurt her people, her family, and she wouldn't be there to protect them. They could take her back to the Fire Nation, parade her off to the Fire Lord, and then send more ships back to destroy her home.</p>
<p>And she wouldn't be there to protect them.</p>
<p>As the guards holding her tightly began approaching a hole on the floor of the deck with stairs leading down, she finally stopped squirming in their grip. They shared a look with each other, seemingly suspicious of her sudden silence, but they kept walking. A third guard walked in front of the two holding her, a ring of keys in his hand to unlock something - likely the cell they would be throwing her into.</p>
<p>She <em>had </em>to be there with her family - there was no way she could guarantee their safety otherwise.</p>
<p>She brought her hands up to her face, wiping the tears from her eyes hastily as she looked around her surroundings with wide eyes. She needed a plan, quickly. She needed to know how to destroy this thing and get away. If she simply escaped from them, they would just follow her back home. She had to <em>ensure </em>they wouldn't be able to follow her.</p>
<p>Just before she was brought below deck to wherever they were taking her, she glanced upward and noticed a few things.</p>
<p>Firstly, the Prince and his Uncle were walking into a doorway on the deck, which meant that that way likely led to sleeping quarters. Secondly, she saw that two long ladders led upwards into a room with a long, rectangular glass window overlooking the deck and the waters around the ship.</p>
<p>
  <em>That had to be the control room.</em>
</p>
<p>She was finally taken below deck, but she didn't need to see any more. She took a deep breath in, released it, then took another deep breath. The air in the ship was a lot hotter than the air outside, and she heard steam pipes all around her behind the metal slabs of the walls. The three men guide her down a long hallway, and at the very end of it is a single door.</p>
<p>Before the man with the key could open the door, Mizuko leans down and digs her feet into the metal grounding of the ship, pulling downward with all her strength. Both the guards behind follow her down because of their grip on her, one of them falling over flat on his stomach entirely - caught unprepared from her sudden fight, having given himself the opportunity to relax after she stopped trying to break free earlier - while the other one put his hands on the wall beside himself to try to stand upright again.</p>
<p>Before he could, Mizuko slammed her head backwards as hard as she could. The back of her head connected with the front of the guard's helmet, and while she was sure it probably hurt her more than it hurt him, it accomplished the job of knocking him off balance and making him dizzy. He fell backwards, hitting his head on the wall as he went onto his back, groaning in pain.</p>
<p>The man with the key turned around at the sounds of fighting, pulling a curved sword of some kind out of his belt. It arced through the air quickly as the man dropped the keys to fight her. She dodged it easily, and she narrowed her eyes at him.</p>
<p><em>He </em>was holding back in order to not hurt her. <em>She </em>would not do the same for him.</p>
<p>Mizuko dropped down to the ground and flipped herself in a circle, knocking the man's feet out from under him. He went down with a shout, and when she climbed back up to her feet, she stood over him with a gleam in her eyes.</p>
<p>"No-!" He shouted, too little too late. Mizuko raised her leg high, bringing it down on his helmeted head harshly. She didn't know what kind of damage it would do to his head because of the protective gear he wore, but at the very least it knocked him unconscious.</p>
<p>The first guard who had fallen over was back on his feet in a fighting stance, reaching for her. The second one who had had his head bashed with Mizuko's skull was still struggling to stand again - not unconscious, but definitely woozy. When the first man reached her and grabbed her arms again, she rolled with his weight and they both fell right back over. She reached up to his head, pulled the helmet off his face - these things weren't secured on at all, no strap or belt or anything - and then slammed his head against the floor. He groaned in pain, clutching his short brown hair with one hand, and Mizuko repeated the action. He finally stopped moving.</p>
<p>She didn't even bother with the other man still struggling to get up. He definitely had a head injury of some kind. She grabbed the key guard's curved sword and began running - a memory of her father telling her not to run with sharp objects entered her head, and she laughed a bit, her adrenaline running high. She cut the ropes on her hands, then held the sword in her right hand properly, prepared for a fight. She wasn't that used to weapons like this, mainly having only used her spear and throwing knives for all her life, but whether she had experience with it or not, it was still a weapon and she knew well enough to poke them with the sharp side.</p>
<p>As she climbed back up the stairs onto the main deck, she saw that there was nobody standing up there anymore. She glanced at the control room high up above her, then to the door below it. Perhaps the door would lead to the control room, so she wouldn't have to risk getting caught while trying to climb the long ladders to the top…?</p>
<p>She shook her head. <em>No, </em>she didn't have the time to try to find another way up. She ran over to the side of the ship, smiling wide at the icy water below. Tucking her stolen weapon into her boot to keep it in case she needed it, she took in a deep, calming breath of icy air, turned her hands to face her palms to the water, and moved toward the ladders leading to the control room. She had practiced moving large amounts of water before, but never with this kind of stress on her. The water shook unsteadily as she moved, but she felt confident enough in her ability for it to work.</p>
<p>When she reached the ladder that would lead to the top, she thrust her arms forward and the water <em>surged </em>at her urging. It swirled around her, making her shiver as it raised her quickly into the air. It moved so fast that she was up in front of the glass of the control room within seconds. Inside, a guard was running out of the room, likely having noticed the water moving and was going to get backup - she'd have to be fast to get out of here without being caught again.</p>
<p>With a turn of her wrist, the water pushed forward and shattered the glass. There were two doors into the room where the ladders were, but, hell, she was <em>trying </em>to cause damage, right? Might as well make her own door in.</p>
<p>She jumped into the room, landing on her feet. She nearly braced herself with her hands, but pulled back at the last second so as to not cut open her hands on the glass now littered across the floor.</p>
<p>"Hey-!" The man at the helm shouted in surprise, reaching back for a weapon. Water wrapped around his legs, then froze him in place.</p>
<p>"I'll just be a second," Mizuko breathed out, wholly focused. The water below the deck was now out of her reach and out of her sight, her skills as a Waterbender untrained to be able to bend something so far away, so she pulled the stolen weapon out from her boot again and simply began chopping away at whatever she saw that looked important. She had no knowledge whatsoever of how these ships worked - the only thing even remotely similar that she'd been in before were simple canoes - so she didn't know what precisely to look for so that it couldn't follow her.</p>
<p>A glass case covered something that looked like a big, complicated compass, and she smashed into it with her elbow before reaching in and pulling out the needles. She chopped away at a few pipes running through the room, ducking underneath the hot steam that began flowing out of them.</p>
<p>She heard footsteps approaching the door, and she quickly bent the ice from the man by the controls into water to cover the door, freezing it just as fast. She pointed the curved sword at him in a threatening manner, but he simply ran out of the room and began climbing down the ladders.</p>
<p>She scoffed. Not a fighter, then.</p>
<p>As it turns out, it wasn't <em>her </em>the man had been running from. When she approached the navigation system he had been using, mulling over it and wondering which parts were important and which parts were useless, she heard a familiar voice shouting on the other side of the now-frozen door.</p>
<p>Suddenly, a massive explosion blasted the door right off its hinges, sending shards of ice flying. The door was also sent flying, right over the ledge of the control room and landing with a heavy <em>thud! </em>on the deck of the ship. Mizuko turned around with wide eyes.</p>
<p>There, in the doorway, is the Prince.</p>
<p>He was <em>fuming. </em>Literally and figuratively.</p>
<p>Without another word, he sent himself flying at Mizuko, a flaming fist at the ready. Mizuko shrieked in surprise and fear, jumping to the side at the last second. She conjured up what water was left in the room, but considering most of the ice had been knocked over the ledge with the door it had been frozen to, it was just a few measly droplets of water. She simply flicked it at his face as she ran, hoping it'd hit his eyes and maybe make him falter for just a <em>second,</em> but it could not even reach him before being turned to steam.</p>
<p>Most of the room is taken up with dark smoke from the explosion, forcing Mizuko to the broken glass that overlooked the ship deck. There were several guards below her, none of them bothering to climb up.</p>
<p>They knew she only had two choices; stay up there and be burnt, or jump down and be caught.</p>
<p>She took another look at the crown prince of the Fire Nation, covering her mouth and nose with the thick fabric of her glove. The moment she saw his burning orange eyes through the smoke, moving <em>towards </em>her at a frightening speed, she made her choice.</p>
<p>She tried to move forward to go down onto the deck - her foot caught on a shard of glass still attached to the large window, and she fell the whole way down to the deck. She tried calling the water over to catch her, but it couldn't reach her in time.</p>
<p>Her back and head connected with the metal deck harshly, sending a loud ringing noise through her ears. She tried to open her eyes, but everything suddenly felt like she was swimming through glue - thick and difficult to wade through. She moved as if in slow motion, slowly trying to climb back up onto her feet. She reached out a hand to brace herself on the wall beside herself, missed, and fell back down.</p>
<p>A loud noise rang out beside her, and when she turned to look, she saw through bleary vision that it was the very man she'd been running from. He had apparently jumped down from the control room and landed perfectly fine on his feet. He glared down at her, furious.</p>
<p>From her position crouched down on the deck, looking up at the Prince, she saw something in the sky behind him.</p>
<p>Something vaguely animal-shaped with people on its back.</p>
<p>"Tie her up again!" He shouted to the guards standing behind her. When he looked back down at her, he muttered angrily to her, "I underestimated you once. I won't do it a-"</p>
<p>Before he could finish the sentence, she leapt forward and wrapped her arms around his midsection, pushing him backwards. They both fell, Mizuko falling on top of him with a groan of pain from the sudden motion causing her head to ache and vision to spin. She honestly expected herself to have missed and flat out made a fool of herself by trying to tackle the wall right next to the Prince, mentally high-fiving herself for actually making contact.</p>
<p>His body was warm, more-so than a normal human temperature, and it almost felt nice on her cold skin. Whatever part of her mind that was damaged from the hit she took to the deck was telling her to cuddle up to the warmth and take a nice, long nap - but she stuffed that part of herself down when the heat started getting hotter.</p>
<p>"Get off!" He shouted, nearly wheezing as she pushed down on his chest. He was creating fire in the palms of his hands, trying to aim them at her, but she was avoiding his hands and grabbing at his wrists. She struggled to wrap her legs around him, trying to get a solid grip on him like when she used to wrestle with Sokka as a child. The light of the sun hurt her eyes, but she forced them to stay open so she could see what she was doing.</p>
<p>"Get-" he started again, cutting himself off this time with a shout when she yanked on his ponytail.</p>
<p>"<em>You </em>get off!" She shouted back. There was definitely a head injury in there somewhere.</p>
<p>She felt the guards behind her catch up, saw them reaching for her out of the corner of her eyes as the Prince pushed her face away, still desperately trying to get her off of him.</p>
<p>"<em>What?!</em> That doesn't make any sense!"</p>
<p>Suddenly, a loud roar interrupted their struggle. Mizuko heard her name being called from above her, and the guards backed away from her, drawing their weapons and readying flames in their hands. She looked up, wincing in pain from the strain it put on her neck and the dull ache in the back of her head roaring to a pounding pain. She blinked blearily, trying to clear the fogginess of her vision before she finally realized what she was looking at.</p>
<p>Aang, Katara, and Sokka were on the top of Appa, calling her name as they flew in closer. The big flying bison landed on the deck of the ship, causing the entire metal beast to tip in the water. Some men slid across the flooring, metal boots sliding against the ground and causing an annoying scraping sound that grated in Mizuko's ears.</p>
<p>"Katara!" Mizuko called, excited and happy and worried and fearful all at once. Suddenly, before she could call the other names she recognized jumping off of Appa and onto the ship, a rather uncomfortably warm hand covered her face.</p>
<p>Prince Zuko grabbed Mizuko's face, finally having the time and space to get a good grip, and pushed her backwards. She tried to stumble to her feet, but she ended up falling after wheeling back several feet. She groaned in agony, bringing a hand to her head as if it would block out the pain. A voice called her name, but she honestly couldn't tell who it was - Katara? Aang? <em>Zuko?</em></p>
<p>She reached out with both hands to either side of her, eyes kept firmly shut. She felt something in her senses, the rush of cold water tingling the edges of her mind. She could <em>feel </em>the water, now she just needed to <em>bend </em>it.</p>
<p>"You're not getting away!" Prince Zuko shouted angrily. She couldn't tell where his voice was coming from, ringing out from all around her. She ignored it entirely and focused all her senses on the water around her.</p>
<p>
  <em>Please, please. I feel you. I can guide you…</em>
</p>
<p>It took a moment - water surging forward, falling back, then moving at her command again - but eventually, water surrounded her, forming a protective ice shield in front of her as flames erupted. Within seconds, the ice shield she had created was melted down into water and steam. She tried to create another shield, but the water wouldn't freeze - she couldn't force it to. Prince Zuko attacked again, another blast of flames, and the water dissipated into smoke in the air. He readied another strike, and as his hand shot forward to hit her, something odd happened.</p>
<p>Instead of flames shooting forward at her, <em>he </em>went <em>backwards. </em>No flames came out at all, although Mizuko noted the air there seemed warmer than before.</p>
<p>"Are you alright, Mizuko?!" Aang nearly shouted in her ear, holding his staff threateningly pointed at the space where Prince Zuko used to be standing. He'd used a blast of air to force him to back off.</p>
<p>"I'm- I'm," she stuttered, mumbling unsteadily. The adrenaline in her veins had made it easier for her to forcibly stay upright and try her best to fight, but now that it seemed that there were people here to protect her, she found herself mentally deflating. She gasped to collect her breath, reaching a shaky hand up. Someone took her hand in theirs gently, the warm contact of another friendly person finally seeming to do her in.</p>
<p>She leaned forward slightly before falling over entirely. Somebody caught her in their arms, and as she blearily looked up with half-lidded eyes, she thinks that it might have been Katara - or maybe Sokka. Blue eyes glanced down at her, worried.</p>
<p>The rest of the "battle" happens in bits and pieces to Mizuko's mind. It seemed every time she blinked, she was missing time.</p>
<p>She shut her eyes as someone caught her, and the next she opened them, she was being lifted up onto Appa's back.</p>
<p>She shut her eyes as she heard the Prince's angry shouting and the sounds of fighting, and when she opened them again, she heard Aang yelling, "Yip, yip!"</p>
<p>Finally, she shut her eyes as she heard the sound of a huge gust of fire coming toward them in the air. She fought, desperately, to keep her eyes open, but they just seemed… too heavy.</p>
<p>They closed, and the last thing she remembered was something heavily hitting the glacier wall as everything went dark.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Episode Five: Newest Friend</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>((A/N: Hello! First and foremost, I want to say THANK YOU for everything you all have been commenting/reviewing on my story! It really makes me smile like an idiot to read your guys’ feedback, and I read them again when I need motivation to keep writing the next chapter when I wanna lay down and sleep all day lol. I thought this chapter would be the shortest one so far because it’s an “original chapter” (aka not following the story of ATLA), but it actually ended up being the longest one so far!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Secondly, I want to tell you guys that there are some things happening in my life at the moment that need my attention. Because of this, the next few updates might take a while (a week or longer between updates)! Thank you for understanding, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!))</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>Mizuko opened her eyes slowly, her vision bleary. She blinked several times, trying to fix the blur and clear her sight. She was laying on something, facing the sky that was now pitch black, the stars twinkling brightly above her. Hours must have passed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For a moment, she doesn’t move at all, confused as to where she is and trying her damndest to remember what had happened right before she had fallen unconscious. She remembered… She remembered Aang showing up at the South Pole, all smiles and child-like energy. She remembered when she had to go find Aang and Katara on the old abandoned ship a little ways away from the Tribe, and she remembered setting off the flare by mistake.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She frowns. She remembered that </span>
  <em>
    <span>they</span>
  </em>
  <span> came because of her - because of her careless mistakes. She allowed herself to act like a child, to explore with curiosity, just once, and her people had suffered because of it. She shut her eyes again, feeling tears well up in them - a mixture of anger, fear, and shame. She tried to remember everything else that had happened afterwards. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ship coming, the burned man attacking her home, her lying to them and telling them she was the Avatar so they would leave her people in peace… The last thing she could remember was when she had escaped from the three guards below the giant ship’s deck, when she’d decided to try to break the ship so they couldn’t follow her back home. She opened her eyes again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her head still ached, but it was much less painful than it had been before, now a simple dull throbbing every now and again. She tried to reach her hand up to touch her head, only to find it was underneath a heavy winter coat that had been laid over her body.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally, she lifted her head just slightly to look around her. It took a bit of effort and the pain in her head ached just a bit more strongly, but she was too curious to just lay back down. She was laying on top of Appa’s saddle, which was no longer on the big creature’s back but instead on the ground, with a rolled up bag under her head to serve as a pillow and her own coat laying over her like a blanket. She couldn’t see over the lip of the saddle, a handful of feet off of the ground, but from what she </span>
  <em>
    <span>could</span>
  </em>
  <span> see, it didn’t look like there was anybody else around her. She could also see the tops of green trees, covered in pristine and untouched snow, around the area. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her head flopped back down onto the soft roll under her, eyes slowly shutting themselves. She wanted to stay awake and find out what was going on, but she felt tired, both physically and mentally. The more she tried to remember what happened, the more tired she felt. Her eyes shut fully, and she felt her breathing evening itself out as she sunk into a blissful state of half-awake, half-asleep.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Suddenly, the smell of smoke reached her nose, and her eyes snapped open in alarm. A flood of adrenaline flowed through her body, and she tore the heavy winter coat off of her body as she sat up. She looked around the dark area with wide eyes, desperately trying to become accustomed to the darkness so she wouldn’t seem so blind. She could see the snowy forest surrounding her in a wide circle, and she hurriedly began crawling over to the side of the saddle so she could see over it. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Where am I? Am I still with Prince Zuko and his crew? Are there Firebenders nearby? Where is the smoke coming from?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Her head gave a throb of pain bad enough to make her shut her eyes tightly, bringing a hand up to hold her head. She grit her teeth and let out a quiet groan of pain. A few memories came flooding back to her in snippets, like little images. She saw herself falling from the control room of the metal ship, fire exploding outwards from the hole in the glass that she had made. She saw the Fire Nation Prince landing beside her while she was prone on the ground, looking down at her with a sneer on his face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then, she remembered that somebody had come to save her. She couldn’t quite remember who, or how the rest of the fight had played out, but when she finally reached the edge of the saddle and peered over it with narrowed eyes, she paused. All thoughts of trying to remember the rest of the fight fled from her mind as she tried to comprehend the sight. There, several feet below her on the ground, was Sokka, Katara, and Aang sitting around a campfire. Several more feet away was Appa, laying on his side and snoozing away peacefully. They all seemed perfectly fine, not so much as a single streak of ash on their clothes. They were quietly talking amongst themselves.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mizuko breathed a bit heavily; the pain of her head, her sudden movements, and the receding adrenaline combined together to make her feel exhausted right down to her bones. Sokka seemed to be the first one to notice her, looking up at the saddle curiously. When he noticed her staring right back, he stood up in shock with wide eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Mizu!</span>
  </em>
  <span> You’re awake!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The sudden loud voice hurt Mizuko’s head, but she couldn’t bring herself to yell back or to tell him to pipe down. She could only find herself feeling glad and relieved to see him alive and well. As she saw Sokka rushing toward the saddle, she noticed that Katara and Aang had jumped to their feet as well. There were tears in Katara’s eyes, and Mizuko wondered if they had just shown up or if she had already been crying.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sokka?” Mizuko asked wearily, still trying to place where she was and what had happened. “What..? Where are we? What happened?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sokka climbed up to sit beside her. When he settled down, his hands reached out for her before hesitating, hovering over her as if he was unsure if touching her would be bad or not. Seeing his hesitation, she smiled tiredly. She pushed forward and wrapped her arms around the younger boy, holding him tightly. He hugged back just as quickly, laying his head in the crook between her head and shoulder. He muttered something in a meek, quiet voice, but she couldn’t hear him over the sound of Aang and Katara calling her name excitedly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two younger members of the group climbed up the side of the saddle as well, and beyond them was Appa slowly waking from the slumber he’d been in at the sound of the commotion. When they both finished climbing up, Katara smiled and invited herself into the hug without question or hesitation, wrapping her arms around both other teenagers. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m so glad you’re okay, Mizu! You had us worried there,” Katara spoke quietly. After a moment of silence, all three kids pulled back from the hug, and Katara’s hands reached up to fiddle with something on Mizuko’s head. When she pulled her hands back, Mizuko saw bandages in her grasp - smudged blood on one side. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mizuko blinked a few times, then raised her hand up to her head. She hadn’t realized there were bandages there. She gingerly poked around, searching for where the blood must be coming from.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You hit your head pretty hard back there, Mizu,” Katara began explaining with a gentle, relieved voice. She grasped Mizuko’s hands and pulled them away from prodding for the wound. When she saw the confused, and slightly startled, expression on the older girl’s face, Katara hurried to comfort her. “But it’s alright, it wasn’t that bad! Just a little cut in the back. I’m sure the dizziness will go away soon!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What happened?” Mizuko repeated her question from earlier. “I don’t remember…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All three of the others looked at each other with worried glances. Katara quietly began re-wrapping her head with fresh bandages.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s the last thing you </span>
  <em>
    <span>do </span>
  </em>
  <span>remember?” Sokka asked, crossing his legs beneath him and looking up at her with fearful eyes. Mizuko wasn’t used to seeing him so vulnerable looking for this long - usually when he showed fear or worry, he hid it just as quickly with a confident grin and a puffed chest. It was always his way of ‘being strong’, and though she often told him it was okay to be vulnerable around the people you trusted, he’d always made some excuse about having to be strong for the others.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mizuko sighs through her nose, shutting her eyes and trying her damndest to recall the events of the day. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Prince Zuko,” she started after a moment of silence. She didn’t know for sure whether the others already knew his name or not, but they certainly knew it now. “Took me aboard his ship. Then I fought back, and I wanted to destroy the whole thing. I.. I fell, and hit my head, and then it gets blurry from there. I remember you guys showing up on Appa, though.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When she opened her eyes again, three other pairs of eyes looked at her with surprise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” She asked, confused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s really…” Katara started, twisting her hands together as she tried to phrase her question. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>All</span>
  </em>
  <span> you can remember?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mizuko frowned, then nodded after a tense silence. Aang, Katara, and Sokka all shared a glance at each other. Mizuko’s brows lowered in an expression somewhere in between fear and anger. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Will somebody just tell me what’s going on?!” She finally urged, almost shouting. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s just-” Sokka started, only to be interrupted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll talk to her,” Aang spoke. Katara and Sokka looked up at him, down at Mizuko, then nodded their heads and began climbing off of the saddle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ll be down by the fire,” Katara offered a smile to Mizuko and Aang before disappearing over the side. Aang sat down criss-cross in front of her, holding his staff in his hands. He cleared his throat and looked up at her. She looked away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mizuko decidedly felt uncomfortable being alone with the young boy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So,” Aang started. Mizuko glanced up at him out of the corner of her blue eyes. He took a deep, deep breath in, then spoke the next several sentences all in that one breath; “...Basically shortly after I left I saw the ship approaching with the fire insignia on it so I flew back as soon as I could, but I was so far out that it took a while and by the time I came back Sokka and Katara told me that you told the soldiers </span>
  <em>
    <span>you </span>
  </em>
  <span>were the Avatar even though you’re not and they took you away and they begged me to help get you back so of course I agreed to help, and when we got there you were on the ground wrestling with the man with the burn scar on his face and you looked like you needed help so we hopped off of Appa and started fighting but boy you sure did a lot of damage all on your own for just one person--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He is practically wheezing by the end, but before she can interrupt and tell him to slow down, he’s taking another massive breath and continuing his explanation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“When we got you on Appa you looked hurt like you were bleeding from your head and it was pretty scary to see you like that but Katara said she knew how to tend to basic injuries so it was all fine, but then we tried to fly away and Mr. Fire-For-Hands shouted something about how he would never stop hunting you down because he thinks you’re the Avatar and they shot a giant fireball at us which I deflected into the glacier wall and it pretty much buried them under ice so they couldn’t follow us and then I told Katara and Sokka that it’s actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>me</span>
  </em>
  <span> who’s the Avatar and they weren’t happy that I kept that a secret at first but it’s been hours since then and you’ve been mumbling in your sleep this whole time and we were scared you weren’t gonna wake up but you actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>kept </span>
  </em>
  <span>waking up several times and asking questions and then going back to sleep and that’s why we thought you’d remember more!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He coughed several times, finally finished with his retelling of events, and Mizuko let the words process in her mind for a moment. She looked down at her hands, a little roughed up from the fighting that had apparently happened </span>
  <em>
    <span>hours earlier. </span>
  </em>
  <span>She knew it must have been a while ago considering it was dark out now, but still, hearing it being confirmed that she’d been out for so long felt… odd. Like she expected Aang to crack a grin and dig an elbow into her side while laughing like he was only joking around. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where are we right now..? Where are we headed?” She asked after a moment to think. She still couldn’t quite remember for herself anything that happened after her falling unconscious on the ship itself, but she believed him when he said she’d apparently woken up several times and even asked questions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Aang took another giant breath in to give another long answer to a simple question, Mizuko hurriedly moved to the side of the saddle again before he could speak.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sokka!” She shouted for the younger boy to hear her, hearing a croakiness in her voice that she usually only heard when she’d woken up from a night of deep sleep. Sokka looked up at her in confusion, putting a hand to his ear in a silent signal to continue. “Where are we going?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He stood up, putting his hands on his hips and letting a frown overtake his face.</span>
</p><p><span>“Well, these</span> <span>two </span><em><span>hooligans</span></em><span> want to head to the North Pole to find a Waterbending teacher for Aang, considering he’s, y’know, the </span><em><span>Avatar </span></em><span>and all that. They won’t listen when I say that’s a long and difficult trip! You should tell ‘em, Mizu, they’d listen to you!” </span></p><p>
  <span>Katara rolled her blue eyes at her brother. She also stood up to shout up at Mizuko. “Aang needs a teacher, he’s the only hope we have of ending this war! He needs to master the elements! More than that, though, we could also find a Waterbending teacher for </span>
  <em>
    <span>us, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Mizu! Wouldn’t that be nice?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mizuko looked back and forth between the two, then shrugged. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure, let’s go to the North Pole.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katara leapt in the air with a grin, pointing at her brother and laughing when he sulked that she didn’t take his side. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was right, though - it </span>
  <em>
    <span>will </span>
  </em>
  <span>be a long and difficult journey. The Northern Water Tribe is all the way on the other side of the world, and the North Pole and South Pole hadn’t had contact with each other almost since the very beginning of the war with the Fire Nation. In fact, the Southern Water Tribe, her home, hadn’t had much outside contact with anyone for a long time. The last time they’d tried to communicate with outsiders and set up a system like they had before the war began, well…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mizuko frowned, her hands balling into fists at the memory. She shut her eyes, taking a deep breath to try to rid herself of the sudden onslaught of emotions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you okay, Mizuko?” Aang asked her quietly, right behind her still. She turned her head away from him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>fine,</span>
  </em>
  <span>” she bit out, perhaps more cold than she’d intended to sound. When he reeled back from her as if she’d struck him, she leapt over the lip of the saddle, sliding down to the ground. She didn’t want to think about it - about her father, about the failed trading system, she didn’t even want to think of her home right now. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And she most definitely didn’t want to think about why she felt so uncomfortable and unhappy in Aang’s presence. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She let out a breath when she landed on the ground, her head giving a solid throb of pain from the jarring movement. Katara looked ready to leap up to help her, Sokka looking just as worried. Mizuko frowned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All her life, she’d had to play the role of the tough, unbreakable older sister. Whenever somebody was hurt, or if the others were scared about something, it was always </span>
  <em>
    <span>her </span>
  </em>
  <span>who had to be there to reassure them, always her who had to be the “mature one”. She’d never allowed herself to show weakness and be seen as anything less than infallible to the rest of her tribe. Not because she wanted to be seen as perfect, or because she wanted them to bow down to her or anything of the sort - she just felt that it was her duty to be the spark of hope in the Tribe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The older men, the</span>
  <em>
    <span> real </span>
  </em>
  <span>warriors, left them behind to fight in a different Nation, for a different people. They had been the ones who everyone looked to when trouble came their way. Before them, the Waterbenders had been the main defense. Now, with </span>
  <em>
    <span>both </span>
  </em>
  <span>of those groups gone - one taken prisoner and likely killed long ago, the other fighting for a people that wouldn’t fight for them - they didn’t really </span>
  <em>
    <span>have </span>
  </em>
  <span>a defense at home. When the children and elderly folk thought of someone coming to their door to attack them, they could no longer feel comfort while remembering the soldiers that would keep them safe. Their safety had left them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It had been up to </span>
  <em>
    <span>her </span>
  </em>
  <span>to be their safety, and she’d strived for years to do the best she could to be just that. She knew, deep down, that it was always a bad habit to try to hold herself up on a pedestal above them, but even still, when they looked at her like they used to look at the strong warriors of their Tribe… she couldn’t help herself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> Now… with Sokka and Katara looking at her like she would collapse at any moment…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She sighed through her nose, settling down by the fire and hugging her knees. Katara and Sokka settled down as well, seemingly convinced that she was okay and wasn’t about to croak on them for standing up too fast. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It just wasn’t something she was used to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then she snickered just a bit, quietly enough that nobody else seemed to hear it - she remembered all the times where she refused to let others see her injuries or her failures, and suddenly, she felt like she understood where Sokka got his insufferable sense of pride from. Considering he spent most of his time around her, learning from her, looking up to her as a mentor and a role model, it was no wonder he had that same bad habit that she did of trying to handle things on her own.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She had to do better, then. Sokka learned this behavior from her, most likely, and she didn’t want him going down that same road - thinking he had to do everything all on his own.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Resolving to be better for the sake of her family, she smiled, glancing around the fire. Aang had hopped down from the saddle, dropping Mizuko’s winter coat and sleeping roll down by her side, then went and made himself a comfortable little sleeping area on Appa’s tail - which Mizuko had to admit looked incredibly soft and inviting. Katara and Sokka settled down on sleeping rolls by the fire for the night, snuggling in to fall asleep. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mizuko rolled out her makeshift bed, slipping her coat on over her head as she laid down. She had only just woken up, but somehow, sleep still came quickly and effortlessly</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>When she next woke up, the fire was reduced to embers and there was a bowl of something steamy by her sleeping bag. The sun was just rising, casting orange and yellow rays of light throughout the sky as the last remnants of blue and purple faded away. She sat up and yawned, rubbing morning gunk out of her eyes as she wondered what time it was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She picked up the bowl and sniffed it, eyes wide as she realized it was some leftover sea prune stew that they must have packed up in a thermos before they’d left to go rescue her. She slurped on it steadily, swallowing the hot liquid slowly. It warmed her up inside, and she smiled. Considering the journey that they had before themselves, it would likely be a long time before she got to have a hot meal again - she frowned just thinking about how many road trip foods they’d be eating over the next several weeks. She had never really liked seal jerky before, but it lasted a long time and was good protein, so it made for the perfect food for a long journey like theirs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you awake, Mizu?” Katara’s voice called from somewhere behind the older girl. Mizuko turned around, mouth still full of hot stew, and nodded her head. Katara was on top of the saddle, which was still off of Appa’s back, digging around the packed bags for something.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mizuko hadn’t really had the time to look around at what kind of supplies the younger members had all brought along with them, but as she caught a glance at what Katara was holding, it didn’t look like much.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aha!” Sokka shouted loudly, seemingly excited about something. He popped up beside Katara, also apparently looking through their supplies, holding a bundle of something in his arms. “I found them!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katara turned and took whatever he was holding up, wordlessly thanking him for it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you guys doing?” Mizuko called up after swallowing her mouthful of breakfast. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katara continued digging through the packed bags, leaving the answering to her brother. Sokka leaned over the edge of the saddle and waved his hands around as he spoke.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, we’re kind of taking stock of what we’ve got right now. We didn’t pack much, considering we were kind of in a hurry to save your life from the Fire Nation, no big deal or anything,” he shrugged in a faux humbleness. Mizuko bit her bottom lip in an attempt to hold back her smile. She had a feeling he wouldn’t let go of that any time soon, and she definitely didn’t want to encourage the teasing by showing him she found it funny.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katara whacked him over the head with something, apparently </span>
  <em>
    <span>also </span>
  </em>
  <span>knowing he wasn’t gonna let go of it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ow,” Sokka rubbed his head before going back to looking through the bags.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katara rolled her eyes at him before climbing down from the saddle slowly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s a little village nearby. We’re gonna count what we’ve got now, then we’ll go shopping for anything we might need before getting on the road again,” she explained in further detail to Mizuko as she walked over. She paused for a moment. “Er… before getting ‘in the air’ again, I guess.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yep!” Aang shouted in a loud, cheerful voice from somewhere </span>
  <em>
    <span>above </span>
  </em>
  <span>her. Mizuko nearly shrieked as the young boy dropped onto the ground right beside her, shutting his glider with a smooth twirl and a bright grin. “The village folks seem like friendly people! And right after we get supplies, we’re going straight to the Southern Air Temple! Boy, I can’t wait to go home!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mizuko finally stood up, dusting off the bits of snow that had flown onto her coat when Aang had landed. Katara took the empty bowl from her hands with a nod, leaving to go rinse it out and pack it away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Right before she left, however, Mizuko noticed a look in her eyes - a look pointed towards Aang. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Sorrow? Worry?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Before she could question her about the look, the younger girl was walking away, telling Mizuko to hurry up and pack her bed roll so they could get going.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right,” she muttered, leaning down to do so. As she did, she noticed Aang still rather close to herself, and she hesitated. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“D’you need any help? I can pack it up for you if your head still hurts,” he offered with a kind smile and innocent eyes, reaching forward to grab at her bedding. Mizuko frowned, snatching her roll up off of the ground quickly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>No</span>
  </em>
  <span>, I don’t need your help.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang blinked a few times at her, confused about her behavior, before leaning back and nodding his head. “Oh, okay.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He stared at her as she rolled up the bedding and walked off. Finally, he shrugged and turned around to go greet Appa. Mizuko glanced back at him while she walked towards Sokka, still looting around on the saddle. He didn’t seem to notice her approaching until she began climbing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Woah, woah! I can put that away for you, y’know,” He called, holding his hands out for her to hand over the rolled up material. Mizuko wanted to get angry at him and tell him to stop treating her like she would fall apart for doing something as simple as </span>
  <em>
    <span>putting away her bedding, </span>
  </em>
  <span>but she took in a deep breath instead. She had just admitted it to herself last night that doing everything on her own was a bad habit - </span>
  <em>
    <span>and </span>
  </em>
  <span>that she didn’t want Sokka copying this habit anymore. If he was going to learn from her, then… then she had to try to be more open, and be less afraid of accepting help.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked up at him and offered a tentative smile, nodding her head. She let him grab the roll from her hands, taking a step back afterwards. Her head didn’t hurt nearly as much as it had last night, but she still had the vague feeling that if she did anything too sudden, the pain would flare to life all over again. She turned around to leave, wanting to get in a few morning stretches before they left for the village.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh! Mizu, wait!” Sokka called out, excitement clear in his voice. She stopped in her tracks, turning around with a curious hum. He knelt down on the saddle to grab at something. “Look at… this!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He turned around to face her again suddenly, holding something high up above his head with a wide, proud grin on his face. One half of the object was wrapped in furs, but Mizuko could clearly tell what it was from the uncovered half. Her eyes widened a bit, taking in the sight of a long, black-and-red double bladed staff. Where there had been a Fire Nation insignia in the middle of the handle, there was now a piece of blue and white fabric tied around it neatly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A grin slowly spread across Mizuko’s face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My new weapon! You brought it?!” She asked in an excited voice, holding her hands out for him to toss it at her. He clearly wondered if throwing it at her was a good idea or not, but only hesitated for a moment before throwing it down, watching her catch it easily. She removed the furs covering half of it and gave it a quick twirl, smiling. Her arms felt a little sore, but otherwise she didn’t have any difficulty with handling it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, we thought you might like having something to fight with. We’re definitely gonna have to </span>
  <em>
    <span>handle </span>
  </em>
  <span>some more Fire Nation freaks on the way,” he punched his hand into his fist on the word ‘handle’, a smug grin on his face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>At the reminder of fighting, she wondered where her Father’s weapons had gone. She furrowed her brows, looking back up at Sokka.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are my dad’s knives…?” She began in a meek voice. Sokka looked surprised for a moment, then frowned sadly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“..No, they’re not here. We didn’t even think to pick up the one in the Village while we were packing up to leave, and we couldn’t find the second one anywhere. Sorry, Mizu.” He glanced away from her, seemingly ashamed of himself for not being able to bring her father’s weapons back to her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, it’s alright,” she waved a hand as if to show that it wasn’t that important. He knew that it was, though, and so did she. If they couldn’t find the second knife anywhere, then…</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Prince Zuko.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Her eyes narrowed. She turned around and tucked the bladed staff behind her back, tying it there with the cloth that had been covering half of it before. Sokka didn’t say anything as she walked away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Fire Nation Prince must still have her father’s knife, and Mizuko didn’t know how she would even </span>
  <em>
    <span>begin </span>
  </em>
  <span>going about trying to get it back… but she knew that she had to. It was the last thing she had of her father left, there was no way she would just accept that it was gone and move on from it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As she stopped near the dwindling campfire, feeling the warmth wash over her legs, she looked down at her gloved hands. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Prince Zuko thought she was the Avatar, right? Aang had never mentioned giving away the fact that </span>
  <em>
    <span>he </span>
  </em>
  <span>was the real Avatar, so he must still think it’s her, right? And Aang had mentioned that the Fire Prince had said something about hunting her down. She looked up, scanning the snowy trees around her. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Good. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Let him chase her. If he got in close enough, she could take back her father’s knife. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katara came back soon enough from rinsing out the breakfast bowls in a river nearby, tossing the dishes up to Sokka who caught them easily and packed them away in a bag. With how much they bicker and toss around insults at each other as easily as breathing air, one might forget that these two are still siblings; they love each other dearly and made a great team.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are we ready to go?” Katara asked.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>Aang was right about one thing; these Village folks were rather nice people. They wore mainly blue and grey furs, reminding Mizuko of home, and offered the four “lost kids” assistance in where to go for supplies. Aang got a few odd stares from the locals because he was wearing clothes that certainly weren’t fit for the cold winter air here, but otherwise the people left their little group to do as they pleased.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When the four of them split up to go looking for different supplies, Mizuko tried to go with Sokka to buy food for the trip while Katara and Aang left to find medical supplies. However, Katara stopped her with a gentle hand on her arm, pulling her back a bit. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mizu,” she whispered quiet enough for just the two of them to hear. Mizuko turned to look at her curiously. “I think you should go with Aang.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Mizuko whispered back, confused and surprised. She glanced over the younger girl’s head and saw Aang a few feet away, kicking some snow under his feet as he waited for his shopping partner to come back - only, Katara apparently didn’t want to go back to him. “You don’t want to go with him? I thought the two of you were best buddies.” She may have been being sarcastic at the notion of them being ‘best buddies’, but she </span>
  <em>
    <span>was </span>
  </em>
  <span>genuinely surprised. They seemed to get along well enough.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katara lowered her eyes, then looked back up to meet Mizuko’s stare.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think </span>
  <em>
    <span>you </span>
  </em>
  <span>don’t want to go with him. Which is why you </span>
  <em>
    <span>should. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Whatever is happening between you… you should get it figured out, if we’re going to be traveling together.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mizuko’s jaw dropped, looking down at the girl in surprise. Katara had always been the “little girl” in Mizuko’s eyes, and in the eyes of practically the whole Tribe, so to hear her being so mature seemed shocking to Mizuko.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Erm, well,” Mizuko stuttered out, trying to think of some excuse for why she </span>
  <em>
    <span>shouldn’t </span>
  </em>
  <span>go and be left alone with Aang. Before she could say anything more, though, Katara was walking past her and heading off with Sokka. Mizuko turned on her heel to glance at the siblings walking away. Sokka looked back at her and pointed at Aang with a frown.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>They’d both noticed?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Sheesh. </span>
  <em>
    <span>She </span>
  </em>
  <span>was the one being immature right now - and she was the oldest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, Katara’s not coming with?” She heard Aang’s voice calling out a few feet away from where she stood, sounding innocently confused. Maybe he hadn’t heard what they had been talking about. Mizuko’s hands clenched into fists, then relaxed as she let out a quiet sigh. She turned around, meeting Aang’s grey eyes briefly before looking away. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“C’mon, let’s find some medical stuff,” she mutters as she walks past him. He hesitates, but follows her soon after. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>For a few moments, they walked in tense and uncomfortable silence. Mizuko found herself </span>
  <em>
    <span>wanting </span>
  </em>
  <span>to say something, to spark up a conversation or even just be able to look him in the eyes, but every time she thought of doing </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything</span>
  </em>
  <span>, something twisted in her gut and forced her to keep her mouth shut and eyes tightly glued to the ground as she walked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally, they found a building nearby that sold medical supplies. Aang held the money but didn’t quite know what they were looking for, so Mizuko pointed out the things he needed to get. Gauze, ointments and salves for open wounds, and some medical tape. There was a lot more they could be getting, but they needed to save up money in case they needed something later on down the line. They exited the shop without uttering any words to each other, and began silently walking back towards the camp where they would meet up with Sokka and Katara. Just before they left the Village, however, something caught Mizuko’s eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the window of a different shop sat writing supplies - leather bound journals, quills and paintbrushes, inks of all kinds and colors…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, can I…” She held out her hand to Aang, still not quite meeting his eyes. “Borrow a few coins?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Huh?” He looked up at her, then over to the shop she was looking at. “Sure. You wanna buy a journal or something?” He dropped a handful of coins - all he had left - into the palm of her open hand with a small smile. Despite the tense, cold air between them, he seemed dedicated to warming up their relationship with constant smiles and good humor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” she shrugged back, mumbling. He waited outside while she went in and bought a few items. Within moments, she was back out of the shop and nodded to him as she passed, heading toward the camp. He followed suit quietly. For several minutes, they walked in absolute silence. The only sound either of them heard was the snow crunching underneath their feet and, occasionally, their own breaths in the wintery air. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mizuko was so focused on watching where she was going that she almost didn’t notice when Aang stopped following her. She turned around, realizing she no longer heard his footsteps crunching through the snow. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What-” She began, curious.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You really don’t like me, do you?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She shut her mouth quickly. Aang stood several feet away from her, both of his hands gripping his wooden staff between them. His thumbs were rubbing patterns on the wood in a nervous way, his eyes downcast as he refused to meet her stare. In her mind, Mizuko knew, logically, that Aang was a twelve year old boy. Now, however, she could really </span>
  <em>
    <span>see </span>
  </em>
  <span>how young and fragile he looked. His feet fidgeted in the snow as he waited for a response, and she felt a stab of guilt in her chest at how uncomfortable she must have been making him this whole time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aang, I…” Mizuko started quietly. She didn’t quite know how to explain it. She turned around to fully face him. “I don’t… </span>
  <em>
    <span>dislike </span>
  </em>
  <span>you, or anything like that.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She sounded like a little girl. She </span>
  <em>
    <span>hated </span>
  </em>
  <span>how uncomfortable she was, and how uncomfortable she was making her companion. She really didn’t dislike him - quite the opposite, he seemed like a nice kid and he had come to her rescue when she’d been taken captive by Fire Nation soldiers. Above all that, he’s the </span>
  <em>
    <span>Avatar, </span>
  </em>
  <span>and of course she doesn’t hate the Avatar. But she knew she must have been coming across that way, and she felt frustration bubbling up inside of her at how she couldn’t seem to put her thoughts into words in a clear and concise way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s okay,” Aang interjected, finally glancing up to meet her eyes. He sounded so sullen, almost defeated. “You don’t have to like me, of course, but I just… wanted to know what I did wrong.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, Aang!” She hurriedly spoke. Her hands clenched into fists, and she let out a puff of breath. “You didn’t do anything wrong!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He frowned, more out of confusion than anything. “But I must have! Is it because I went onto that ship? I’m sorry I did that, I swear I won’t do it again-!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not </span>
  <em>
    <span>you, </span>
  </em>
  <span>Aang! </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m </span>
  </em>
  <span>the one who was wrong!” She shouted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang went quiet, eyes a bit wide. Mizuko took in a deep, icy breath, feeling the coldness spread through her lungs. It did little to soothe the heat of shame she felt, and she fought the desire to look away from the younger boy. He deserved a proper explanation and an apology, and she wouldn’t meekly hide her eyes while she gave it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aang, back at the South Pole, I stepped aside and let them banish you! I just sat back and let them kick </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span>, a twelve year old boy, out of the Village! I let them send you out into the cold!” Mizuko’s fingers trembled. She hadn’t wanted to think about it, </span>
  <em>
    <span>definitely </span>
  </em>
  <span>didn’t want to talk about it, because she thought that if she avoided it altogether it would go away - but her feelings of guilt and shame just kept burning within her every time the young boy offered help or smiled at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that it? It’s okay! You thought I was a threat. Besides, I’m an Airbender, I can handle myself in the cold!” He began smiling a bit, apparently thinking that all he had to do was forgive her for this perceived crime and that everything would be okay afterwards. She shook her head, angry at herself.</span>
</p><p><span>“I didn’t let them banish you because I thought you were a threat, Aang,” she muttered. She tried to continue meeting his gaze, but she finally broke and looked away, feeling tears fill her eyes. Shame burned in her chest. “I let them banish you because… because I wanted them to respect me again. Don’t you get it? I was being </span><em><span>selfish </span></em><span>and </span><em><span>cruel. </span></em><span>I let them kick a child out of our Village because I thought I</span> <span>would </span><em><span>get something</span></em><span> out of it. I just…”</span></p><p>
  <span>Aang didn’t speak, didn’t make any noise at all. Mizuko felt a tear slide down her cheek. Her next words came quietly, barely above a whisper.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I felt like I lost their respect because I was the one who set off the flare. And I thought that, if I let them banish you, they might think of me as mature again… That maybe they wouldn’t be so disappointed in me anymore. I was so selfish.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mizuko thought back to when Kanna had berated her for stepping foot on the ship - how the elders of the Village looked at her with disappointment when she admitted that it was her own fault that the enemy would be arriving at their home. She didn’t deserve to see him smiling at her, didn’t deserve the friendship he kept trying to form with her. Since he showed up in the Southern Water Tribe, she treated him with a cold air of caution and then selfishly let him be punished so that she could get something out of it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With her eyes screwed shut, she didn’t see his reaction to her words. For a moment longer, she didn’t hear anything either. With every second of silence, the barb of guilt in her chest twisted tighter and tighter, making up scenarios in her mind about how he was furious with her, how he would take off without her and leave her behind for her cruel actions. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her eyes snapped open when she felt his arms wrap around her in a comforting hug.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s okay,” he whispered, burying his face into the warm fabric of her winter coat. “I forgive you.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She almost didn’t know what to do next. She slowly wrapped her arms around him in response, and when he pushed forward to hug her tighter, she let out a quiet sob and let herself believe his words. He forgave her. The twisting pain in her heart untangled itself and finally disappeared. She would do better - she would </span>
  <em>
    <span>be </span>
  </em>
  <span>better - for the sake of her family…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And for her newest friend.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>((A/N: Woah! An Author’s Note at the END of the chapter??? That’s wacky! Anyway… There are a few things I want to tell y’all but I didn’t wanna put some long ass A/N at the start, so I’ll put it down here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>First, I wanted to let you all know that I seriously can’t state enough how much of a smile your comments/reviews have put on my face lately. There’s some tough stuff happening in my life at the moment and it’s always nice to come back to this story and see you guys enjoying it. That being said, while I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>definitely </span>
  </em>
  <span>not gonna complain about getting all good comments, don’t be afraid to critique it too if you have any! I strive to improve my writing so it’s more enjoyable for my readers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Secondly, I wanted to address a question there was in the comments! From </span>
  <b>Shiningheard_of_ThunderClan</b>
  <span> who asked if Aang went into the Avatar state or not and whether Zuko was still convinced that Mizuko is the Avatar; I hope I answered the question well enough in this chapter when Aang was giving his fast-paced catch up to Mizuko after she’d first woken up. He did NOT go into the Avatar state while rescuing her, thus he did not reveal himself to be the Avatar for sure, but whether or not Zuko still thinks of Mizu as the Avatar or not is a question that you’ll have to wait to be answered in later chapters! (He DID just see an Airbender, after all!)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And finally, another comment I wanted to discuss down here. From </span>
  <b>HogwartsGraduate6</b>
  <span> who mentioned how Zuko must have felt after talking with Mizuko and hearing what the Fire Nation did to her people - there are going to be some chapters that AREN’T in Mizuko’s perspective/following the Gaang. Coming up shortly, in fact (likely in the very next chapter), will be Zuko’s perspective while he tries to get his ship fixed and he thinks about the events that transpired. So don’t worry, you’ll get to see what he thinks soon enough!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With that out of the way, thank you all for reading and reviewing! I hope you’re all staying safe with everything happening in the world at the moment, and have a good day/evening/night!))</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>